
Class _J^jD±LQ- 
Book MZ^ 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/dryfarmingitspriOOmacd 



DRY-FARMING 






:.,-«,V',n 'I' 






/- A- ' 



CROSSING WHEAT, MINNESOTA EXPERIMENT STATION 
By this means new drought-resistant wheats can be developed 



DRY-FARMING: 

ITS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 



BY 

WILLIAM MACDONALD 

M.S.AGR., SC.D., PH.D., 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF 

EDINBURGH AND THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 

DRY-LAND AGRONOMIST, TRANSVAAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

FOREIGN VICE-PRESIDENT AND CORRESPONDING SECRETARY 

FOR THE DRY-FARMING CONGRESS 



IWustratefc 




Sw w» A v 



NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1909 






<6 



Copyright, 1909, by 
The Century Co. 



Published October, 1909 



24$5jD4 



THE 0E VINNE PRE88 



TO ALL THOSE 

WHO BELIEVE IN THE DRY-LANDS OF THE 

UNITED STATES AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY 

INSCRIBED 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

i History of Dry-farming 3 

ii Some Points in Practice . . . . . 39 

in The Conservation of Soil Moisture . 62 

iv Rainfall and Evaporation .... 87 

v The Problem of Tillage 106 

vi The Campbell System 145 

vn Dry-farming Zones 163 

viii Dry-land Crops 207 

ix The Traction-engine in Dry-farming . 263 

x Dry-land Experiments . 279 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Crossing Wheat, Minnesota Experiment Station 

Frontispiece 

A Dry-farm in the middle of the desert, Washington 

County, Utah 7 

Their First Home on a Dry-farm, Juab County, Utah 14 

Sage-brush, Desert of Utah 23 

Dry-land Wheat in Utah 29 

Dry-land Wheat, U. S. Experiment Dry-farm, Chey- 
enne, Wyoming 36 

Dry-land Brown Grass, l£ tons per acre, Forsyth, 

Montana . 47 

Dry-land Melons grown on the Bench Lands of Mon- 
tana 58 

Eastern Section of Wyoming, near Luther ... 68 

A Dry-farm in Northern Wyoming 77 

Dry-land, Gold-coin Fall Wheat, 55 bushels per acre 89 

ix 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



A Dry-farm in South Africa, showing two miles of 

Maize 96 

Crop— Rotation Plots, Experiment Station, Edgeley, 

North Dakota 101 

Fall Wheat, Turkey Red, Forsyth Dry-farm, Mon- 
tana ... 109 

A Hay and Grain Derrick 120 

A Dry-farm Home near Newcastle, Wyoming . . 131 

Wheat grown continuously, third crop, yield 4 bushels 

per acre, Forsyth Dry-farm, Montana . . . 138 

Wheat after a Moisture-saving Fallow, yield 25 bush- 
els per acre, Forsyth Dry-farm, Montana . .138 

Barley grown continuously, third crop, yield 6 bushels 

per acre, Forsyth Dry-farm, Montana . . . 141 

Barley after a Moisture-saving Fallow, yield 25 bush- 
els per acre, Forsyth Dry-farm, Montana . . 141 

Tall Oat-grass grown on the Dry-farms of Montana 157 

Dry-farm Squash, Forsyth Experiment Station, Mon- 
tana 169 

Harvesting on a Wyoming Dry-farm 180 

Two Varieties of Dry-land Wheat, Red Cross and 
Turkey Red, U. S. Experiment Station, New- 
castle, Wyoming 190 

X 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

. TT. PAGE 

Rotation Plots at the Edgeley Experiment Station, 

North Dakota 197 

Rotation Plots at the Edgeley Experiment Station, 

North Dakota 197 

The Old Method and the New 201 

Dry-land Oat-field (Nebraska White), U. S. Experi- 
ment Station, Newcastle, Wyoming .... 209 

Dry-land Wheat in Shock, Forsyth, Montana . . 215 

Wheat-breeding Nurseries, Minnesota Experiment 

Station 222 

Oats grown continuously, third crop, yield 8 bushels 

per acre, Forsyth Experiment Station, Montana 232 

Oats after a Moisture-saving Fallow, yield 47 bushels 

per acre, Forsyth Dry-farm, Montana . . . 232 

Dry-land Wheat, Christensen Ranch, Wyoming . 245 

Harvesting Dry-land Potatoes 253 

A Gasolene-traction Plowing Outfit at work on a 

3000-acre farm in Montana 270 

The Bates Grubber for Clearing Sage-brush . . . 270 

A Small Threshing Outfit, Bellefourche Experiment 

Station, South Dakota 283 



XI 



PREFACE 

The aim of this volume is to set forth in 
a plain way the salient facts of that new 
branch of agricultural science which is 
now universally known as dry-farming. 
The writer has taken special care to deal 
only with the data obtained by reliable 
farmers, experiment-station workers, to- 
gether with the results of his own experi- 
ence. It is therefore hoped that this little 
manual will form a safe and useful guide 
to those thousands of settlers who are 
ceaselessly pouring into the great semi- 
arid plains of the United States and 
Western Canada and be of genuine value 
as well to all those interested in the study 

and practice of agriculture. 

xiii 



PREFACE 

The author wishes to express his in- 
debtedness for much valuable aid to the 
following: Messrs. E. C. Chilcott, L. J. 
Briggs, and William M. Jardine of the 
National Department of Agriculture; 
Dr. John A. Widtsoe, Professor Lewis 
A. Merrill, and Professor J. C. Hogen- 
son of Utah; Professor F. B. Linfield 
and Professor A. Atkinson of Montana ; 
Mr. H. W. Campbell of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska; Dr. V. T. Cooke of Wyoming; 
Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester, 
Washington, D. C; and Professor E. 
W. Hilgard of California. Nor must he 
fail to thank Mr. John T. Burns of 
Colorado, Secretary to the Dry-Farming 
Congress, for much kind assistance. 

College of Agriculture 
University of Minnesota 
Minneapolis, June 1, 1909. 



XIV 



DRY-FARMING 



DRY-FARMING 

CHAPTER I 

HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

IN the study of dry-farming we are 
naturally led at the outset to ask what 
is the real meaning of the term "desert." 
The dictionary defines it as "a barren 
tract incapable of supporting popula- 
tion, as the vast sand plains of Asia and 
Africa, which are destitute of moisture 
and vegetation." Such a definition is 
apt to mislead us unless we constantly 
bear in mind that what is now a desert 
region may be transformed in a few 
years into a country of fertile fields ca- 
pable of sustaining a large population. 
The most striking illustration of this fact 
is to be found in America. Spread out 

3 



DRY-FARMING 

an old map of the United States, of just 
forty years ago, and you will see that vast 
region marked "The Great American 
Desert" which stretched from the Mis- 
souri to the Rockies. What has hap- 
pened? In the space of a single 
generation, a vast army of settlers has 
invaded this region and six transconti- 
nental railroads 1 bring food and the 
daily paper to the farmer's door. Next 
turning to the British Empire we note 
that great desert region of Australia so 
quaintly called the "Never-Never- Coun- 
try" on the fringe of which farmers even 
now are settling. Lastly, coming to 
South Africa, we can mark out the 
Kalahari Desert, or, as it is termed in the 

1 On the 10th of last May forty years had elapsed 
since the rails of the Union Pacific moving westward met 
the rails of the Central Pacific moving eastward at Prom- 
ontory Point, near Ogden, Utah, and the first transconti- 
nental railway was finished. To-day the United States 
possesses 230,000 miles of railroads, or forty-seven per 
cent, of the railway system of the whole world. 

4 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

native tongue, the "Great Thirst Coun- 
try," which is destined in our own lifetime 
to become the happy and prosperous 
home of hundreds of energetic colonists. 
The lesson of all this is plain. In our dry 
or desert lands we possess a priceless heri- 
tage; and if there are any persons who 
still think that there are no more good 
farms to be had, you may remind them of 
that fine saying of Emerson: "The last 
lands are the best lands." 

Definition. 

The term "dry-farming," or, as some 
writers prefer to say, "dry-land farm- 
ing," is a new term which originated in 
western America. In Utah and some 
other portions of the Great Basin it is 
common to speak of arid-farming. Still 
another term is "scientific soil culture," 
but it is far too cumbersome for the ordi- 
nary farmer and is hardly worth discus- 

5 



DRY-FARMING 

sion. For the sake of uniformity it 
would be well if all experiment stations, 
farmers' societies, and the agricultural 
press in general would agree to speak of 
"dry-farming" and "dry-land agri- 
culture." Dry- farming may be defined 
as the conservation of soil moisture dur- 
ing long periods of dry weather by means 
of tillage, together with the growth of 
drought-resistant plants. It is not, of 
course, farming without moisture, for 
that would be clearly impossible. The 
phrase is now widely and loosely applied 
to a particular form of farming in all 
places where the normal rainfall ranges 
from zero to 30 inches per annum. That 
is to say, a farmer in a certain district of 
Utah might speak of dry-farming with 9 
inches of rain; while his neighbor in eas- 
tern Nebraska with a rainfall of 29 inches 
might equally well propose to conserve 
his surplus moisture by proper tillage 

6 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

along dry-farming lines. But although 
the fundamental principles would be the 
same, the details of the two operations 
would be vastly different. For the Utah 
farmer would require to accumulate a 
two years' rainfall to produce a satisfac- 
tory crop; whereas his more fortunate 
brother in Nebraska would doubtless de- 
mand an annual crop from such an abun- 
dant supply of moisture. Nevertheless, 
the Utah farmer has one distinct advan- 
tage over his friend in Nebraska, namely, 
that his rain falls during the winter 
months when evaporation is not exces- 
sive; whereas in Nebraska much of the 
rain falls during the hot summer months 
when a very large percentage is likely to 
be lost through evaporation. 

An Ancient Practice. 

It is sometimes said that dry-farming 
is a new agricultural practice. But it is 

9 



DRY-FARMING 

not so. Even in America the farmers of 
Utah have been raising crops on their 
dry* lands with a rainfall of less than 15 
inches for over half a century. More than 
that: dry-farming has been practised 
since the dawn of civilization in Mesopo- 
tamia in Egypt, and in northwestern 
India. And, as Hilgard has pointed out, 
the great depth of soil in arid regions as 
compared with that of humid climates 
undoubtedly explains largely why the 
ancient agriculturists could remain in 
the same country for thousands of years 
without having any knowledge of scien- 
tific agriculture. Most farmers are aware 
of the fact that the roots of plants go far 
deeper in dry regions than they do in 
damp climates. Now if the roots of 
plants can penetrate to great depth, so 
surely must both moisture and air. It 
would thus seem that an all-wise Provi- 
dence had amply compensated the agri- 

10 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

culturist of the semi-arid region by giving 
him in many parts of the globe great 
depth of soil combined with an almost 
inexhaustible fertility. Such at least is 
the lesson of history. 

An English Agriculturist. 

The starting-point in our story may 
be said to be the publication of that 
agricultural classic entitled "The New 
Horse-Hoeing Husbandry" or "An Es- 
say on the Principles of Tillage and 
Vegetation" by Jethro Tull. This very re- 
markable man, who was born in the year 
1674, may be justly called the "Father 
of the Experimental Method in Agricul- 
ture." He was also the foremost 
preacher of his time of the gospel of 
good tillage. The great value of TuQ's 
writings is that they are founded not 
upon mere theory, but upon actual ex- 
periments in the field. At that time, in 

11 



DRY-FARMING 

the south of Europe, it was customary 
for the peasant to till the rows between 
the grape-vines. This practice attracted 
the attention of the English traveler, who 
on his return began to carry out the same 
system on his own estate ; and as a result 
of his studies and experiments he pub- 
lished his agricultural classic in the year 
1731. Tull's idea— which was that by 
tillage soils might be constantly and 
forever re-invigorated or renewed — is 
summed up in his famous epigram "Til- 
lage is Manure." He believed that the 
earth was the true and the sole food of 
the plant; and, further, that the plant 
feeds and grows by taking in minute par- 
ticles of soil. And since these particles 
are thrown off from the surface of the 
soil grains, it followed, therefore, that the 
more finely the soil was divided the more 
numerous the particles and the more 
readily the plant would grow. Although 

12 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

Tull's theories were wrong, his practice 
has been followed by all progressive far- 
mers down to the present time. We now 
know that plants do not absorb particles 
of earth, but take in food in solution. 
Consequently, the more the particles of 
soil are broken up and refined, the more 
plant food the roots can absorb. Before 
Tull's day, seeds were sown broadcast 
and but little subsequent tillage was 
given. He recommended a more thor- 
ough preparation of the land. He ad- 
vised that wheat, oats, and other crops be 
planted in drills to admit of tillage with 
a horse-hoe. He devised a number of 
tools to perform this work. For all these 
things, he was bitterly abused and op- 
posed by his contemporaries. His system 
met with much opposition from the far- 
mers themselves. In the third and fourth 
editions of this work the editors affirm 
that "what is still more to be lamented, 

15 



DRY-FARMING 

these people [farmers] are so much at- 
tracted to their old customs that they are 
not only averse to alter them themselves, 
but are moreover industrious to prevent 
others from succeeding, who attempt to 
introduce anything new/' And again: 
"The Hoe-Plough has been complained 
of as cumbersome and unwieldv to the 

ml 

horse and ploughman." With Tull we 
see the beginning of modern farm ma- 
chinery; and as Professor Bailey re- 
marks: "Every commonwealth might 
well raise a monument to the memory of 
Jethro Tull." He died in the year 1740. 

Dry-Farming in the United States. 

In the United States, the history of 
dry-farming may be said to date back 
to 1849, the year of the gold discovery in 
California. At that time men crossed 
from the Eastern States, passed over the 
deserts, and settled along the Pacific 

16 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

Coast. As was natural, the early pio- 
neers in the State of California, just as 
in South Africa, established themselves 
along the sides of rivers ; but in process of 
time they became bolder and began to till 
the land which lay away from the water 
courses. It is probable that the first 
farming on dry land in California was 
done in connection with orchard cultiva- 
tion. Several years ago Hilgard of 
California called attention to the vast 
potentialities of the arid lands of the 
West and by his brilliant researches in 
the laboratory and in the field he clearly 
proved that they possess certain distinct 
advantages over the more humid soils of 
the East. He has always laid special 
stress on the two fundamental principles 
of dry-land farming, namely, deep initial 
preparation of the ground, and constant 
shallow after-cultivation. He has also 
observed that in selecting virgin land for 

17 



DRY-FARMING 

dry-farming, the farmer should not rest 
content merely with the chemical analy- 
sis of his soil, but should carefully exam- 
ine the nature of the native vegetation, 
and probe or dig to a depth of five or six 
feet before passing final judgment on the 
capability of such ground for this type of 
farming. Hilgard's investigations on 
the subject of alkali land have also been 
of the greatest value to the farmers of 
California. 

In Nebraska. 

So far as Nebraska is concerned, the 
first settlements were a hopeless failure, 
and indeed it was not until three great 
tides of settlement had washed this State 
and receded in disaster that success was 
finally won. The pioneers of Nebraska 
mostly came from the humid regions of 
the Eastern States as well as from 
Europe. And it was but natural that, if 

18 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

they had any knowledge of farming 
whatsoever, it was of farming in a damp 
climate. Thus it happened that both 
their methods and their seeds were totally 
unsuited to the drought-stricken plains 
of the Sunflower State. Nevertheless, 
the best of the colonists remained, and, 
being taught a bitter lesson by their con- 
tinual losses, finally changed their meth- 
ods, adapted themselves to their arid 
surroundings, and so eventually estab- 
lished prosperous homesteads. The in- 
fluence of two men in this State had much 
to do with concentrating attention upon 
the possibilities of dry-land farming. 
The one, Mr. Hardy W. Campbell, of 
Lincoln, Nebraska, has introduced what 
is widely known as the "Campbell 
method" of cultivation throughout the 
Western States. The other, the late Mr. 
J. Sterling Morton, the father of Arbor 
Day, was for some time Secretary of 

19 



DRY-FARMING 

Agriculture. Mr. Morton was also a 
Nebraska pioneer, and it is to his influ- 
ence that most of the homesteads of that 
State are surrounded by groves of trees 
and, furthermore, that Arbor Day has 
spread throughout the whole world. The 
advantages of trees in the conservation 
of moisture are well known to all who 
have farmed on the wind-swept prairies. 

In Utah. 

Utah, which takes its name from the 
Indian tribe "Eutaw," is a land of snow- 
clad mountains and desert places. Now 
although the agricultural and industrial 
development of this important State has 
undoubtedly been due to the practice of 
irrigation 1 — which has been raised to a 
higher art here than anywhere else on the 
American Continent, with the possible 

1 It is said the first irrigation canal in the United States 
was built in Utah in the year 1847. 

20 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

exception of California— it is also of in- 
terest to note that the colonists of Utah 
have also been the pioneers in dry-farm- 
ing. The total area of the Mormon 
Commonwealth is 82,190 square miles; 
but the holdings are small; the average 
size farm being about forty acres; while 
five and ten acres are not uncommon. 
This, of course, refers to farms under 
irrigation. At the present moment, how- 
ever, only 983 square miles are irrigated, 
or a little more than one per cent, 
of the total land of the State. For the 
sake of argument, increase the irrigated 
area to 10,000 square miles, and yet only 
a trifle more than twelve per cent, of the 
State will be under irrigation farming, 
leaving 72,000 square miles, or nearly 
45,000,000 acres of arid lands. The soil 
of these millions of acres is fertile; the 
rainfall is low; they are covered with 
sage-bush, greasewood, and sunflowers; 
2 21 



DRY-FARMING 

there is no possibility of irrigating those 
deserts, but they form a priceless though 
as yet undeveloped part of the State, in 
the opinion of many far-seeing citizens. 
The problem of arid-farming in Utah is 
not new. Even at the building of the first 
canal the pioneers wistfully put the 
question: "What can be done with the 
deserts?" And the story of the conquest 
of these deserts is a romance of the past 
half-century. The first settlers passed 
through Emigration Canyon and entered 
the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on 
July 24, 1847, when they at once ap- 
plied themselves to the digging of irriga- 
tion ditches. As time wore on new 
irrigation canals were built and more and 
more land was brought under cultivation. 
Sometimes, however, the full supply of 
water failed to reach the farmer ; yet here 
and there fair but small crops were 
reaped. This fact did not escape the 

22 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

notice of the more thoughtful settlers and 
several attempts were made to grow 
wheat without irrigation even as early as 
the year 1855. These efforts failed be- 
cause they were made mostly on irrigated 
farms. But the farmers of that day were 
not aware of the fact, now so well under- 
stood, that farming without irrigation 
cannot be practised on soils which are 
now and then flooded with irrigation 
water. Ten years later an experiment 
was made on a much larger and bolder 
scale. It was then that a little band of 
immigrants — most of whom hailed from 
Scandinavia — had settled on what is now 
known as Bear River City. They drew 
the water for their farms from the Malad 
River. Now the water of this stream is 
heavy with alkali, and it was only a mat- 
ter of a few years until the lands had 
become so impregnated with noxious 
salts as to be unable to sustain a crop. In 

25 



DRY-FARMING 

despair the settlers swung their plows 
into the hopeless sage-brush lands, 
planted their wheat, waited, watched and 
prayed. To their amazement the seed 
sprouted and the young plants stood up 
bravely in the scorching sun and yielded 
a bountiful crop. This was the first great 
victory for dry-farming in the State of 
Utah. For several years the practice 
was confined to the northern part of the 
State — notably the Cache Valley — and it 
has only been spread to the central and 
southern counties within the past decade 
or so. But as far back as the year 1879 
Major J. W. Powell in his volume en- 
titled "The Lands of the Arid Region" 
speaks of the strange sight of these dry- 
farms. And Brigham Young often pre- 
dicted that the time would come when the 
lands above the irrigation canals would 
produce vast crops of grain. It was only 
however, as the rivers passed into private 

26 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

ownership, and the population increased 
that the people themselves seriously 
turned to dry-farming. Be that as it 
may, with forty years' experience 1 it is 
but little wonder that the farmers of this 
State can speak as those having authority 
on the fundamental principles of dry- 
farming. 

Dry-farming in Utah is thus no mere 
theory, but an actual fact, and if any 
further proof were needed it would be 
found in the latest statistics, which show 
that the acreage under the plow and the 
harrow is already far greater than that 
under the irrigation furrow. 

In Utah Dr. John A. Widtsoe, Direc- 
tor of the State Agricultural College at 
Logan, was the first publicly to advocate 

1 Recently, the writer visited a farm in the Cache Valley 
which had yielded wheat continuously for the past forty 
years without the use of manure. The usual practice had 
been followed, viz., wheat one year, summer fallow the 
next; and the last crop was making an excellent growth. 

27 



DRY-FARMING 

the reclamation of the deserts by the 
scientific study of the soil. In this cause 
he has been ably assisted by Professor 
Lewis A. Merrill, Superintendent of the 
Farmers' Institutes and Editor of the 
Deseret Farmer. Dr. Widtsoe's gospel of 
dry-farming, as applied to Utah, may be 
summed up in the following terms : 

1. Plow deep. 

2. Plow in the Fall; there is no need 
for Spring plowing. 

3. Cultivate the soil in early Spring, 
and as far as possible after every rain. 

4. Fallow the land every other year, 
under a rainfall of 12 to 15 inches; every 
third year, under a rainfall of 15 to 20 
inches. 

5. Grow crops that are drought-re- 
sistant. 

6. To make dry-farming successful 
among practical men stick to a few crops, 
preferably such staples as wheat, oats, 

28 







DRY-LAND WHEAT IN UTAH 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

barley, rye and alfalfa, and then when 
they are established go on to others. 

The first dry- farmers on the bench 1 
lands of Utah soon learned to plow 
deeply and to cultivate often in order to 
provide a natural soil reservoir for their 
scanty rainfall and, at the same time, to 
retain it as long as possible. They also 
found out, through long experience, that 
light seeding and the cropping of the 
land every second year gave the biggest 
harvests on dry soils. This particular 
practice led to the development of mois- 
ture-saving summer fallows, of which I 
shall speak later. 

Other States. 

Although I have only touched upon 
three States, it must not be supposed that 
dry-farming is purely a local problem. 

1 In agriculture a "bench" is "the nearly level or 
gently sloping land rising above the adjacent low region 
and forming a part of a terrace or wash, disunited from 
the remainder by erosion. — Century Dictionary. 

31 



DRY-FARMING 

For it has been successfully tried to a 
greater or less degree in every State in 
the West. Twenty years ago a begin- 
ning was made in dry-farming in eastern 
Wyoming near the Black Hills. During 
the same period settlers were pouring 
westward over the Dakotas, Kansas, 
Colorado, Montana, and the drier sec- 
tions of Oregon. 

Experiment Stations. 

It is said that the first experiment 
farms in the semi-arid country were 
started by the State of Colorado in the 
year 1894. But for lack of funds these 
stations were abandoned and it is to the 
State of Utah that the honor belongs 
of having first established and success- 
fully maintained a series of dry-land 
experiment stations. Since the year 
1895, the reclamation of the deserts with- 
out irrigation has been the subject of 

32 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

much discussion among the officers of the 
Utah Experiment Station. In 1901, a 
systematic investigation was begun, and 
in 1903 the Governor recommended in 
his message to the Legislature that arid 
experimental farms be established. Such 
is the brief history of the Arid Farm 
Bill. In the State of Utah, five experi- 
mental farms have been established. 
They consist of forty acres each. Each 
county in which a farm was placed 
donated the land, cleared the ground of 
sage-brush, and so forth, gave it a first 
plowing, and inclosed it with a rabbit- 
proof fence. Numerous citizens took a 
personal interest in the work and greatly 
simplified the inauguration of the experi- 
mental plots. These farms are under the 
direction of the Agricultural College. 
The results of the Utah Dry-Land Ex- 
periment Farms may be summed up as 
follows : 

33 



DRY-FARMING 

They have already demonstrated, 

( 1 ) The great value of tillage in dry- 
farming. 

(2) That by proper methods a certain 
percentage of moisture can be carried 
over from one season to another. 

(3) That the finest wheats are those 
grown on dry lands. 

(4) That the area of dry-farming can 
be greatly extended by the introduction 
of drought-resistant cereals. 

Furthermore, the publications of these 
stations have been the means of attract- 
ing hundreds of new settlers to Utah. 
All this has been accomplished with an 
extraordinarily low State appropriation 
of $12,000 per annum. Meanwhile, the 
United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, through the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, has established a chain of ex- 
periment stations in the semi-arid region 
for the purpose of testing the best meth- 

34 



HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 

ods of conserving soil moisture and 
raising dry-land crops. 

Dry-Farming Congress, 

Lastly must be mentioned the part 
played by the Dry-Farming Congress. 
This conference was started three years 
ago in the City of Denver as a sort of 
"side-show" to the Live-stock Exhibi- 
tion; but it was soon found that many 
more farmers were interested in the sub- 
ject of dry-farming than in the pedigrees 
of cattle, horses, and sheep. And the 
country at large awoke to the fact that 
dry-farming was no mere theory but a 
subject of vast economic importance. A 
year later the Trans-Missouri Dry-Farm- 
ing Congress met in Salt Lake City; 
and this year at Cheyenne, Wyoming, 
when several foreign delegates 1 were 

1 The following countries sent their representatives to 
this Congress : Australia, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, 
Transvaal, and Great Britain. 

37 



DRY-FARMING 

present and took part in the proceed- 
ings. The fourth Congress will meet in 
Montana. In the past dry-farming has 
suffered from the attempts of unscrupulous 
land dealers to use it as a means of selling 
worthless land. But the Congress has 
always stood out against such misleading 
statements ; and at Cheyenne a resolution 
was passed denouncing in the strongest 
terms all fake and sensational advertise- 
ments. The future of dry-farming is 
assured. It will take its place alongside 
the sister science of irrigation, and 
through the combined efforts of the far- 
mer and the expert it is destined to exer- 
cise an enormous influence on the future 
development of the United States and 
the British Empire. 



38 



CHAPTER II 

SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

IN dry-farming the most important 
factor is the nature and quality of the 
soil. One man may fail to "make good, ,, 
in the expressive language of the West, 
although the rainfall of his region is 
ample, by reason of the poorness of the 
soil ; another may raise splendid crops in 
a country of a small average precipita- 
tion." 1 In the selection and purchase of 
dry-farms, many serious mistakes might 
have been avoided if the farmer had 
known: first, that the most important 
thing is depth of soil ; second, that sandy 
or silty loams are the best soils for dry- 
farming, and third, that the character of 

1 A term which includes rain, snow, and sleet. 

39 



DRY-FARMING 

the soil can readily be determined by 
simply digging a pit or examining a 
railroad cutting. Having satisfied him- 
self on this score the intelligent and 
energetic dry-farmer can go in and pos- 
sess the land and be reasonably sure of 
success. 

All soils are not suitable for dry-farm- 
ing. They may be too shallow or too 
loose, or too compact. The soil must be 
looked upon as a sort of reservoir for the 
storage of water over periods ranging 
from a few weeks to many months. With 
that in mind, the question is, "what soils 
will best retain the rainfall?" And the 
answer is, "sandy loams having a good 
supply of well decomposed vegetable 
mold." Besides, such soils are warm, 
mellow, and easy to plow. In dry- 
farming as a general rule, soils ought not 
to be too heavy. For example, clay soils 
are unsuitable as the moisture does not 

'40 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

rise fast enough to supply the plant dur- 
ing spells of very dry weather. Further- 
more, such soils prevent the downward 
penetration of the roots of the plant, and 
are therefore to be avoided. Again, soils 
containing a large quantity of humus 
(decaying vegetable and animal matter) 
are much better than those which are 
lacking in this quality. Humus not only 
increases the moisture-holding capacity 
of soils, but also improves their mechani- 
cal texture. Although arid soils are 
usually comparatively poor in humus, 
they are much richer in nitrogen than the 
soils of humid regions, and so, smaller 
amounts suffice. It has also been recently 
found that the nitrifying germs are pres- 
ent in large numbers in the soils of the 
drier regions and in a very active state. 
Soils known to be poor in lime should be 
avoided, or supplied with marl or quick- 
lime, preferably with marl. Of course, 

41 



DRY-FARMING 

naturally poor soils can be greatly im- 
proved and made good dry-farming soils 
by green-manuring or merely the appli- 
cation of barn-yard manure. But the 
application of commercial fertilizers is 
seldom of much practical benefit to the 
ordinary dry-land farmer who needs 
more especially a moisture-retaining soil 
rather than a temporary artificial stimu- 
lant to plant growth. The nature of 
vegetation is a very important matter. 
In a new country the prospective farmer 
should first of all look out for any wild 
leguminous (pod-forming) plants. For 
two reasons: first, because they indicate 
the presence of sufficient lime to justify 
dry-farming; and, secondly, they nearly 
always have deep roots showing a good 
depth of soil. Another point to be noted 
on viewing all agricultural lands is the 
development of trees. Are they well 
developed and of fairly normal form — 

42 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

not low or stunted? It is not so much a 
question of species as a problem of nor- 
mal or abnormal growth. Certain trees 
indicate good land provided they are of 
normal growth. 

But the most essential point is to bore 
to a depth of not less than five or six feet 
in order to see what is the nature of the 
subsoil. For in dry-farming the amount 
of moisture which will rise to the plant 
roots depends upon what sort of soil is 
below and its depth. Gravel will effec- 
tually hinder water from getting up from 
below. Further, if the water-table (that 
is, the point at which water is found by 
digging) is too shallow, the roots will be 
prevented from feeding properly and 
may be drowned. For example, a water- 
table of five feet is too little for al- 
falfa (lucerne) though it would do well 
enough for clover ; alfalfa should have at 
least from ten to fifteen feet for its long 

8 43 



DRY-FARMING 

tap-root to strike down and fully de- 
velop. Again, you can often get a good 
idea of the true nature of the subsoil by 
noticing how deep ants and burrowing 
animals go and what kind of soil they 
bring up. Perhaps a single case which 
Professor Hilgard mentioned to the 
writer will make this clear. Some time 
ago, in the State of Washington, Hil- 
gard noticed a tall luscious grass grow- 
ing in a particularly arid region. He 
could not understand how the grass hap- 
pened to thrive there until he observed 
that it invariably grew in the burrows of 
badgers. The badgers had subsoiled the 
land and so made a natural soil reservoir 
which was moist enough for that par- 
ticular species of grass. Here the bad- 
gers 1 proved a true beacon to the farmers 
who afterwards went in and possessed the 

1 In South Africa the presence of ant-hills is usually a 
reliable sign of good dry-farming country. 

44 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

land. Subsequently, the same land grew 
excellent crops of potatoes. It is always 
well to look carefully at the roots of 
native grasses ; to follow their depth and 
then to find out by simple feeding tests, 
chemical analysis, or inquiry, the nutri- 
tive value of each grass. Some grasses 
are so full of flinty matter that cattle will 
not thrive on them; others again, grow- 
ing on very dry lands, often make very 
good fodder. Furthermore, animals 
usually prefer the grass growing on hilly 
lands to the green vegetation on low or 
bottom lands, which is apt to be more or 
less salty, especially in arid regions. 

Finally, in case of doubt as to the real 
nature of the land, you can go to the 
nearest bluff and look at the geological 
formation of the country. A gentle slope 
is the best land for dry-farming, as hilly 
land is likely to be more or less irregular, 
with very uncertain soil strata. 

45 



DRY-FARMING 

Moisture and Fertility. 

In dry-farming, then, the two funda- 
mental problems are the conservation of 
moisture and the maintenance of soil 
fertility. Moreover, it may be said in a 
broad way that while the farmer of the 
East is most interested in the question of 
fertility, the farmer of the semi-arid 
West is much more interested in the sav- 
ing of moisture. Nor is the reason far to 
seek. In the Eastern States there is a 
plentiful supply of moisture, but the soils 
of many farms have been exhausted by 
injudicious cropping year after year and 
the land will no longer yield a profitable 
crop. The Eastern farmer is therefore 
confronted with an impoverished and ill- 
used soil. And so he tries to restore the 
early fertility of his soil by the use of 
commercial fertilizers, 1 barn-yard, or 

1 The farmers of a single State, Maine, spent last year 
$5,000,000 on the purchase of commercial fertilizers. 

46 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

green manures. But the farmer of Utah, 
Montana, and Arizona is working on 
different land. He knows that if he can 
conserve his moisture he will reap an 
abundant harvest. 1 His problem then is 
how best to store up his small annual 
rainfall. Show him how to do that and 
he is fully satisfied. Indeed, it is more or 
less useless to urge the conservation of 
fertility on men whose real need is more 
water. I do not wish to minimize the 
great value of fertility or the necessity 
of keeping the essential plant- foods from 
being used up: but simply to emphasize 
the fact that the farm must be made to 
pay, and it is more important for the 
Western farmer to concentrate his mind 
on the conservation of soil moisture than 
on the possible exhaustion of his land in 
ten years' time. There are, of course, 

1 This is also largely true of South Africa, where the 
problem of moisture supply is much more important than 
the question of fertility. 

49 



DRY-FARMING 

districts in the West, notably in Oregon 
and in Minnesota, where the continuous 
cropping of wheat over periods of ten to 
thirty years has seriously injured the 
land. The only rational way of restoring 
the fertility to such soils and increasing 
the yields on these old grain lands is by 
rotation of crops, and the use of barn- 
yard and green manures so as to return 
vegetable matter to the soil. One of the 
very best crops to use for this purpose is 
clover which has given such excellent re- 
sults on the exhausted wheat soils of the 
Red River Valley and southwestern 
Minnesota. Clover is a nitrogen-gath- 
ering crop and is unrivaled as a soil- 
renovator. In dry- farming, commercial 
fertilizers are of little practical use and 
should be avoided. For they do not in- 
crease the store of humus— vegetable 
mold — which is so important an agent in 
conserving the soil moisture. Further- 

50 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

more, being so expensive, they are only 
suited to intensive farming on limited 
areas close to the large markets. 

Mixed Farming. 

The most successful dry-land farmers 
are those who are engaged in mixed 
farming— that is, growing grain and rais- 
ing stock at the same time. This is easily 
understood when we remember what an 
important bearing manure has on soil 
improvement, fertility, and the retention 
of moisture. Where crops are fed to 
stock on the farm and the manure and 
refuse, such as corn stalks, returned to 
the land, the loss of soil fertility is com- 
paratively small. The feeding of cattle, 
lambs and hogs on the dry-farm will 
bring in to the energetic farmer ready 
money, while the manure will help to im- 
prove his soils and sustain his crops in 
seasons of drought. 

51 



DRY-FARMING 

Implements for Dry-Farming. 

In order to carry out the principles of 
dry-farming, it is not necessary to pur- 
chase expensive implements; and many 
farmers raise good crops on dry lands 
with a very few tools. Indeed, the writer 
has seen more than one farmer ruined 
through the extravagant purchase of 
costly agricultural machines which, when 
not in use, were allowed to remain rusting 
in rain and snow-storm. As far as pos- 
sible simple sheds should be erected for all 
farm implements, or they may be covered 
with tarpaulins and greased from time to 
time. The dry-farmer should possess the 
following: Two-furrow plow, single- 
furrow plow, disc harrow, steel-tooth 
harrow, chain harrow, acme harrow, 
spring-tooth harrow, alfalfa (lucerne) 
harrow, 1 weeder, float or drag, corn- 

1 Note the number of harrows. All of use in making 
the soil mulch. 

52 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

planter, press-drill, potato-planter and 
digger, horse-hoes and cultivators, roller, 
sub-surface packer, 1 mowing-machine, 
wagon, hay-rake, etc. 

Size of the Dry-Farm. 

The question is often asked, "How 
large should a dry-farm be?" This is a 
purely local or personal question gov- 
erned by the land laws of individual 
States. If it were practicable it should 
depend on the family unit. That is to 
say, can a farm of a quarter-section, 160 
acres (Homestead Law), afford a suffi- 
cient acreage to support the farmer, his 
wife and four or five children ; or does it 
require half a section, 320 acres, as under 
the new Mondell Law, 2 or a whole sec- 

1 A sub-surface packer is not essential, and should be 
used with great care on wet or heavy soil. 

2 This Act, which was approved February 19, 1909, pro- 
vides for an enlarged homestead. This Act provides for 
the making of Homestead entry for an area of 320 acres 

53 



DRY-FARMING 

tion, 640 acres, as out among the sand- 
hills of Nebraska. All this naturally 
depends upon the energy of the husband- 
man, the nature of his climate, and the 
productivity of his soil. At farmers' 
meetings it is usual to hear this matter 
debated, with much earnestness, from 
two different points of view. On the one 

or less of non-mineral, non-timbered, non-irrigable public 
land in the States of Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, 
Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and in the Territories of 
Arizona and New Mexico. This Act is construed to mean 
land which requires the application of dry-farming meth- 
ods to make it produce agricultural crops. Final proof 
must be made as in the ordinary Homestead, and further, 
at least one fourth of the whole area must be shown to 
have been continuously cultivated to agricultural crops, 
other than native grasses, beginning with the third year 
of the entry and continuing to date of final proof. Fur- 
thermore, commutation is expressly forbidden. An inter- 
esting additional clause is inserted in this Act in regard to 
the State of Utah, to the effect that on lands which have 
not sufficient water upon them for domestic purposes, con- 
tinuous residence is not necessary, but the entryman may 
reside at such distance as will enable him to farm success- 
fully. Further, he must show that he has cultivated not 
less than one half of the total area during the fourth and 
fifth years after entry. 

54 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

hand it is said, with much truth, that the 
great need in America to-day is better 
tillage; that the Red River farmer 
should produce not 7 or 8 bushels of 
wheat, but 14 to 16; and that this could 
be done by better cultivation on smaller 
holdings. On the other hand the West- 
erner justly remarks: "I am a pioneer, 
far removed from the comforts and 
pleasures of civilization. Land is cheap 
and abundant. I can live more easily and 
feed more stock on 320 acres than I can 
on 160." The writer has an open mind on 
this subject and does not care to dogma- 
tize. But the following is possibly a fair 
statement of the case. For farming 
under irrigation the small farm unit 40, 
80, or 160 acres are the figures to be con- 
sidered; but a much larger unit, 160, 320, 
640 is essential to the dry-farmer. At 
any rate every one should possess twice 
the amount of land he proposes to put in 

55 



DRY-FARMING 

crop and at least as much again for stock 
pasture. Undoubtedly, a section — 640 
acres — of land would bring in a more 
certain livelihood than a smaller holding, 
and half that amount, where little or no 
water is available for irrigation, is small 
enough to make a comfortable living in 
many parts of the semi-arid West. 

The Lesson, 

The development of dry-farming is 
teaching the old but too often forgotten 
lesson of the value of proper tillage. The 
most common and fatal error in Western 
farming is the careless preparation of the 
ground. Poor, shallow plowing and the 
lack of after-cultivation of the soil are 
the two factors to which crop failure is 
mainly due. It is impossible for any 
plant to withstand a severe drought when 
its roots lie in hard, dry soil. But put the 
same seed in deep mellow earth, with a 

56 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

moisture-saving mantle, and it remains 
green after weeks of rainless weather. 

And- the mistake of the semi-arid 
mountain region is over-irrigation with 
little or no cultivation. The same is 
equally true of South African agricul- 
ture. It is far easier to irrigate than to 
cultivate when a crop shows signs of dis- 
tress, and the soil soon becomes stagnant 
with a surplus supply of water. Sun- 
shine and air are excluded, the fertility of 
the land impaired, and the root system 
of the crop often permanently injured. 
When farmers realize that many crops 
can be successfully grown on dry lands 
merely with good cultivation, they will 
hesitate before embarking upon expen- 
sive irrigation schemes, and will seriously 
study the problem of better tillage before 
they face the cost of constructing canals. 

Again, farming with irrigation usually 
costs more per acre than dry-land f arm- 

59 



DRY-FARMING 

ing. The products of irrigated land, such 
as sugar-beets, vegetables, fruits, and 
forage crops, are well adapted to the 
local market; while grain crops, such as 
wheat and maize for over-sea export, can 
be produced much more cheaply on dry- 
lands. But undoubtedly the safest 
method is to use dry-farming, whenever 
possible, as an adjunct to irrigation; and 
the arid West is now dotted with wind- 
mills, which tap artesian veins; while 
small dams are being built to collect the 
surface water and so secure for the set- 
tler, even in the severest drought, a little 
fruit, a few vegetables, and some grain 
for his table, and forage for his animals. 
Thus the two parts of a farm — the dry 
lands and the lands under water — are 
being made to supplement one another to 
their mutual advantage. At present the 
Federal Government of the United 
States is carefully considering a scheme 

60 



SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 

of hydrographic survey for the purpose 
of determining the extent and location 
of underground water in the dry-farming 
regions of the West. Without such a 
survey a settler may spend his life in the 
immediate vicinity of water or waste 
much money in fruitless attempts to 
locate wells. 



61 



CHAPTER III 

THE CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

THE most important problem in dry- 
farming, as already stated, is un- 
questionably that which deals with the 
conservation of soil moisture. Hardly a 
season passes but we hear of crops which 
have failed because of lack of rain; and 
this complaint is, unfortunately, not con- 
fined to any one particular district, but is 
more or less common to all parts of the 
West. "How can we control and con- 
serve the soil moisture so as to save our 
crops in time of drought?" 

Soil Water. 

Now, in order to answer this question, 
we must first understand how the soil 

62 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

holds its water, and the part it plays in 
the mystery of plant growth. Nor 
should we forget that the water-holding 
capacity of any soil is a most important 
factor in determining the value of farm 
lands — a matter which, so far as the 
writer is aware, has not yet been fully 
recognized in this country. It is also im- 
portant to consider the way in which 
moisture may be dissipated or lost. In 
the first place, water, falling as rain upon 
a field, may be lost by a surface run-off, 
or by percolation in the case of loose, 
gravelly soil; or, lastly, by evaporation 
from the surface of the ground. It is 
plain, therefore, that if by any means we 
can lessen this loss of water from the soil 
a larger and surer crop -yield will follow. 
All farmers are aware of the vast im- 
portance of moisture to the growing 
crop; but perhaps few realize the enor- 
mous amount of water that is needed for 
4 63 



DRY-FARMING 

even a normal crop. Numerous experi- 
ments have shown that from 300 to over 
500 tons of water are required on the 
average to produce one ton of dry vege- 
table matter. In Wisconsin, King found 
that a two-ton crop of oat-hay re- 
quired over 1000 tons of water per acre, 
which is equal to about nine inches of 
rainfall. 

Again, the amount of water which a 
soil can hold depends chiefly upon the 
depth of the soil reservoir and the fine- 
ness of the soil particles. That is to say, 
deep plowing and the thorough pulver- 
izing of the soil are the two factors which 
enable any soil to hold the maximum 
amount of moisture. Most farmers are 
well aware of the advantages of deep 
plowing, more particularly in dry sea- 
sons; but some do not yet fully com- 
prehend the benefit of "fining" or 
pulverizing the soil. Now, since each 

64 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

individual soil grain is more or less sur- 
rounded by a film of moisture, as will be 
seen hereafter, it is evident that, other 
things being equal, the largest aggregate 
area of earth grains will retain the most 
water per cubic foot. Let us make this 
plain by a simple sum. Suppose that a 
cubic foot of marbles one inch in diam- 
eter has a total surface of 27.7 square 
feet. Now, for the sake of argument, 
reduce these marbles to one thousandth 
of an inch in diameter, and you will find 
that the total area per cubic foot is in- 
creased to 27,700 square feet. From this 
little problem it is clear that the total 
amount of water capable of being ab- 
sorbed by a soil which is cloddy and 
lumpy must be very small in comparison 
with that in a finely divided state, and not 
only is the absorbing power of the soil 
much less, but its capacity for holding 
moisture is likewise greatly diminished. 

65 



DRY-FARMING 

Free Water or Well Water. 

It is well known that all fertile soils 
contain many tons of water, which is 
usually present in three forms as (a) free 
water or well water, (b) film water or 
capillary water, and (c) hygroscopic 
water. 

Free water is frequently called well 
water, ground water, standing water, or 
first water. It comes to the surface in 
the form of springs, and is usually the 
source of the supply of wells. If you dig 
a hole in any ground, you will generally 
strike water at a certain depth, which 
may be several inches or many feet below 
the surface. This point is termed the 
"water-table." Now the surface of the 
water-table follows, roughly, the general 
contour of the land; that is, it stands 
highest where the ground is highest, and 
lowest where the land is lowest. In dig- 
ging wells, therefore, the farmer must take 

66 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

care to sink the bottom of his well so far 
below the level of the water-table that 
seasonable changes will not cause it to go 
dry. As a recent authority remarks, 
"We must consider, then, that beneath all 
farm soils, at some depth, there is stand- 
ing water, and that we plow and har- 
row above subterranean lakes." This is 
a most important fact, because if it is 
only a matter of one or two feet from the 
surface of the land to the level of the so- 
called soil-lake, there is evidently not 
enough dry soil for the plants to grow 
and thrive in, and consequently they are 
liable to sicken and die off. The depth 
of standing water most favorable to 
crops cannot be definitely stated, since so 
much depends upon the nature of the soil 
and the roots of the crop. Thus, while 
lucerne needs a fairly large amount of 
water to do well, its deep-rooting habit 
renders it undesirable that the "first," or 

69 



DRY-FARMING 

standing water, should be as near as three 
feet from the surface of the soil, whereas 
the shallower-rooting cereals may be suc- 
cessfully grown with a water-level of this 
depth. But in no case should free water 
come within eighteen inches of the sur- 
face. Tap-rooted plants descend to an 
extraordinary depth in sandy loams, and 
for such crops a high permanent water- 
level is not good, since they can obtain 
their moisture supply at great depths and 
demand a feeding area vast in compari- 
son with the soil mass at the service of 
shallow-rooted herbs. Thus lucerne roots 
frequently penetrate to the depth of 
twenty feet, and double this distance is 
not unknown. 

Film Water or Capillary Water. 

But the most valuable water in the 
soil and, at the same time, the most im- 
portant for the dry-land farmer, is that 

70 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

which surrounds the soil grains in the 
form of moisture films, and which is also 
known under the name of capillary 
water. It is this water which is absorbed 
by the roots of the plants, and, conse- 
quently, forms the direct source of sup- 
ply of all cultivated crops. If you take 
a pebble and dip it into a basin of water 
or into the brook, you will observe a film 
of water closely sticking to the surface of 
the stone. This is an illustration of what 
is termed "surface tension," by means of 
which water, in the form of moisture 
films, is held in the pores of the soil par- 
ticles. The existence of this physical 
force may be made clear by the simple 
experiment of floating a clean needle, 
carefully laid, on the surface of water, or 
by the fact that a drop of any liquid tends 
to assume the smallest possible space — 
that is, the shape of a sphere. In short, 
the free surface of any liquid tends to 

71 



DRY-FARMING 

become a sort of stretched elastic film 
under molecular attraction; and this is 
what happens to the soil films under the 
action of surface tension. 

Now, if very fine capillary glass tubes 
are dipped into water, the water will rise 
up the tubes in inverse proportion to their 
diameters, or, in other words, the smaller 
and thinner the tubes the higher will the 
liquid rise. Again, if the bottom of a 
tube containing soil is placed in contact 
with water the moisture will be drawn up 
one, two, three, or even more feet, de- 
pending upon the nature and the fineness 
of the soil. The movement of film water 
is usually referred to as "capillary ac- 
tion," and it was formerly supposed that 
this moisture passed upward to the sur- 
face by means of capillary or hairlike 
tubes. In reality, there are no such tubes, 
merely fine passages, pores, or capillary 
channels, and the film water rises from 

72 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

the sub-soil by means of surface tension. 
Thus, when the sun is hot, or a drying 
wind scorches the ground, the soil 
moisture rises — as oil is drawn up to 
feed the flame of a lamp-wick — from 
the water-table below, which may be two, 
six, or twenty feet beneath the surface of 
the ground; that is, wherever free or 
standing water is found. Hall mentions 
the steady rise of capillary moisture 
through 200 feet of fine-grained chalk 
during a dry season in the south of Eng- 
land. 

Furthermore, capillary action depends 
on the fineness of the soil particles and 
their closeness to each other. In coarse, 
loose, sandy, or gravelly soils the action is 
weak; in fine, well-compacted soils it is 
strong. Thus in the conservation of soil 
moisture capillarity is a matter of the ut- 
most importance; and, accordingly, in 
selecting a farm or a portion of a farm 

73 



DRY-FARMING 

for dry-land crops, this problem should 
be most carefully considered. For in a 
severe drought it is always the crops on 
gravels and coarse sands, having a poor 
lifting power, which suffer first, since the 
sub-soil water is with difficulty drawn up 
to the roots of the plant. Should the 
drought continue, the clay soils suffer 
next, for, although they may start with 
a much larger supply of soil moisture, yet 
the water moves very slowly through the 
very fine pore spaces, and the upward lift 
cannot keep pace with the loss at the sur- 
face due to transpiration 1 and evapora- 
tion. 

As Hall 2 remarks, and the writer's 
own experience bears out this statement, 
"The soils which are least affected by 
drought are the deep loamy sands of 
very uniform texture, fine-grained 

1 Evaporation of water from the leaves and stems of 
plants. 

2 "The Soil," by A. D. Hall, page 95. 

74 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

enough to possess a considerable lifting 
surface, and yet not so fine as to inter- 
fere with the free movement of soil water. 
The western soils which American wri- 
ters describe as capable of withstanding 
an unbroken summer drought of three 
months' duration are deep, fine-grained, 
and uniform, with practically no par- 
ticles of the clay order of magnitude to 
check the upward lift by capillarity." In 
many portions of the semi-arid West a 
most casual examination will reveal two 
types of soil from an agricultural stand- 
point. The one may be characterized as 
a shallow, sandy soil, one to three feet in 
depth, resting upon a gravel sub-soil; 
while the other is a deep uniform loam 
from ten to thirty feet in depth. It need 
hardly be said that the second soil— the 
deep loam— will remain practically un- 
affected in dry weather, while plants on 
the shallow soil are wilting, parched, and 

75 



DRY-FARMING 

dying. But the extraordinary thing is 
that intelligent men will buy farms with- 
out the faintest conception of the nature 
and quality of the sub-soil — a matter 
which can be readily ascertained, in a few 
hours, or a day or two at most, by exam- 
ining cuttings, wells, railroad embank- 
ments, digging pits here and there, or by 
boring with a simple post-hole auger, as 
well as by taking stock of the growth and 
depth of the root-system of native trees 
and shrubs, grasses, legumes, etc. 

And it cannot be too strongly em- 
phasized that all farmers should make 
themselves thoroughly acquainted with 
the character of their soil down to the 
depth of at least four, but preferably six 
to eight feet. The wisest agricultural 
chemist in the United States to-day, Pro- 
fessor Hilgard, remarks, "It is hardly 
excusable that a business man calling 
himself a farmer should omit the most 

76 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

elementary precaution of examining his 
sub-soil before planting an orchard or a 
vineyard, and should at the end of five 
years find his trees a dead loss in con- 
sequence of an unsuitable sub-soil." 
Again Hilgard says: "Eastern emi- 
grants, as well as a large proportion of 
Calif ornian farmers, do not realize the 
privileges they possess in having a triple 
or quadruple acreage of arable soil under 
their feet, over and above the area for 
which their title-deeds call." 

Hygroscopic Moisture or Water Vapor. 
We now come to the third way in 
which water may occur in a soil. This is 
as water vapor or hygroscopic moisture. 1 
The surface-soil absorbs water vapor 
from the air, and more especially during 
heavy dews and mists or in cool, damp 

1 If you take a tumbler of cold water into a warm room 
the glass becomes coated with a thin film of hygroscopic 
moisture produced by condensation. 

79 



DRY-FARMING 

nights. Thus it is that in some parts of 
the United States, notably California, 
summer fogs have a markedly good effect 
upon vegetation. And although this 
moisture is of but little value save in 
times of severe drought, it is not to be 
despised by any means. During the hot 
days of summer a soil of a high ab- 
sorptive power such as a well-tilled clay 
loam, will retain its moisture for a much 
longer time than a soil of low absorptive 
power, such as a shallow sandy soil, 
whose store of moisture will be exhausted 
in a few hours, while the surface of the 
land itself is heated up to the scalding 
point, thereby searing the stems and 
root-crowns of the growing crop. It is 
also worthy of note that, generally speak- 
ing, soils of high absorptive power are 
also those of high capillary power. 

Hilgard summarizes the effect of hy- 
groscopic moisture as follows : 

80 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

1. Soils of high hygroscopic moisture 
can withdraw from moist air enough 
moisture to be of material help in sus- 
taining the life of vegetation in rainless 
summers or in time of drought. Such 
soils cannot, however, maintain normal 
growth, save in the case of some desert 
plants. 

2. High moisture absorption prevents 
the rapid and undue heating of the sur- 
face-soil to the danger-point, and thus 
often saves crops that are lost in soils of 
low hygroscopic power. 

The Soil-Mulch. 

Having spoken of the various ways in 
which moisture may exist in the soil, we 
now come to a discussion of the best 
means of conserving this moisture. This 
can best be done by what is commonly 
known as mulching. Any material which 
is spread upon the soil to shade the sur- 

81 



DRY-FARMING 

face from the sun and to break the 
connection between the water-bearing 
sub-soil and the exposed evaporating 
surface, is termed a mulch. In garden- 
ing operations leaves, manure, coarse 
hay, straw, grass clippings, etc., are com- 
monly used. Such mulches of loose or- 
ganic material are very effective — even 
more so than a mulch of fine earth — but 
they hinder the continual stirring of the 
land, which promotes aeration and nitri- 
fication. 1 Stones serve practically the 
same purpose as a mulch, if they happen 
to be spread thickly upon the surface of 
the ground, as they shield the land from 
evaporation and so tend to keep the soil 
cool and moist. In the bleak, wind- 
swept county of Caithness, in the far 
north of Scotland, the writer has known 
of cases in which the removal of the nu- 

1 Process of changing nitrogen into nitric acid and 
nitrates. 

82 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

merous small pieces of slate and stone — 
which are often found on the arable lands 
of that region— has caused a marked 
decrease in the crop of the ensuing sea- 
son. Everywhere you may see homely 
examples of the principle of mulching. 
Turn over a board or stone lying on the 
ground; the soil beneath is more moist 
than the ground near by— for the pores 
of the earth have been closed, and the 
current of moisture passing upward has 
been stopped. That is why fisher-lads 
look for earthworms beneath stones when 
the weather is dry. 

But the most useful and practical 
mulch in dry-farming is that which is 
made of loose, dry soil. This is done by 
stirring the surface of the soil with any 
implement of tillage such as the plow, 
the harrow, or the cultivator. In closely 
packed soil capillarity freely takes place, 
and as the surface layer dries under the 

5 83 



DRY-FARMING 

action of the sun and the wind, fresh sup- 
plies of water are lifted from the sub -soil 
water to the exposed and rapidly evapo- 
rating surface. In a word, we may think 
of the sun and the wind as a mighty 
double-acting force-pump. In a recent 
experiment it was found that each square 
foot of an ordinary farm soil during the 
summer months lost 1.3 pounds of water 
daily by evaporation from the surface of 
the land; or, in other words, over five 
inches in a single month. But should the 
top layer of soil be broken up and left 
loose upon the land by cultivation, then 
there is no longer one continuous film 
linking the exposed surface with the sub- 
soil water; and consequently, surface 
tension can only lift the water so far as 
the film is unbroken, that is, as far as the 
unstirred soil extends, and this layer is 
protected from evaporation by the loose 
soil above. Thus, when a soil-mulch is 

84 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 

formed the capillary channels are broken 
and the water cannot rise into the loose 
layer of surface-soil which is separated 
from the firm soil below by large spaces, 
across which moisture cannot pass. Ac- 
cordingly, King writes: "In the conser- 
vation of soil moisture by tillage there is 
no way of developing a mulch more ef- 
fectively than that which is produced by 
a tool working in the manner of the 
plow— to completely remove a layer of 
soil and lay it down again, bottom up, in 
a loose, open condition.'' 

In the humid regions of America it has 
been found that a soil-mulch of a depth 
of three inches is sufficient to conserve the 
moisture of the soil. But in California, 
and the semi-arid West, fully twice that 
depth is necessary for proper protection 
during the dry, hot season, which some- 
times lasts for three to six months at a 
stretch. This is particularly true of 

85 



DRY-FARMING 

orchard-cultivation. For where the culti- 
vation has been shallow — one to three 
inches — you may frequently observe that 
the leaves of the trees wilt badly under 
the hot sun, but recover later on, or dur- 
ing the cool of the night-time, whereas 
with deep cultivation the trees do not ap- 
pear to suffer at all, even during the 
hottest weather. At the same time, in 
the case of land intended for small grain 
crops, a three-inch soil-mulch is prefer- 
able, as otherwise the soil is apt to be- 
come too dry close to the surface where 
the seed germinates, and where the first 
roots forage for both food and moisture. 



86 



CHAPTER IV 

RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

THE agricultural productivity of 
any region is primarily governed 
by the nature of the climate and the 
quality of the soil. For example, the 
rainfall may be so scant or the growing 
season so short, or frosts so frequent as 
to make farming even on fertile land 
more or less impracticable. On the other 
hand, no matter how favorable the climate 
may be, if the soil is so compact as to 
retard the free movement of air, and 
water; or if it lacks one or more of the 
essential elements of plant-food, crops 
cannot be successfully grown. Now the 
climatic factors which are involved in 
crop production are temperature, rain- 

87 



DRY-FARMING 

fall, and evaporation. With regard to 
the first it may be stated that wheat and 
oats will stand a much lower temperature 
than corn (maize) or sorghum. Again, 
some regions are found in which the tem- 
perature is so high that wheat does not 
thrive. For this reason only those plants 
should be selected which are well adapted 
to the temperature range of the particu- 
lar region in which they are to be grown. 
Now in dry-land farming the most im- 
portant problem is naturally the amount 
and distribution of the rainfall. The 
rain falling in the course of a year is 
usually measured in the form of inches. 
This amount ranges all the way from 
nothing or a mere fraction of an inch, as 
in portions of the Andes and the great 
African and Asian deserts, to as much 
as 600 inches, or fifty feet, at Cherapun- 
dji in eastern India. In studying a 
rainfall map of the world it will be seen 

88 



RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

that a large portion of the earth's sur- 
face is arid. This term is commonly 
meant to imply an annual average of less 
than 20 inches. The arid region thus de- 
fined would include, in the United States, 
most of the country lying west of a line 
drawn through North Dakota and 
Texas, extending northwest into Canada 
and southward into Mexico; while in 
South Africa it would be found in the 
Kalahari Desert and in some portions of 
the Transvaal. The different sections of 
the United States comprise an Arid re- 
gion, 1 with a rainfall of from zero to 20 
inches; a Semi-arid region from 20 to 30 
inches ; and a Humid region of 30 inches 
and upward. About two fifths of the 
United States is more or less arid and 
must be irrigated or cultivated by dry- 
farm methods. But as Professor Elwood 
Mead remarks: "If every drop of water 

1 The driest and warmest State is Arizona. 

91 



DRY-FARMING 

which falls on the mountain summits 
could be utilized, it is not likely that more 
than 10 per cent, of the total area of the 
arid West could be irrigated, and it is 
certain that, because of physical ob- 
stacles, it will never be possible to get 
water to even this small percentage." 
This statement clearly shows what a vast 
tract of territory in America still re- 
mains to be reclaimed by dry-farming. 

Now, although it would appear that a 
great deal of the West is more or less 
arid, it must not be forgotten that there 
is a heavy fall of snow during the winter 
over a very large area, which has a most 
beneficial influence on the physical condi- 
tion of the soil. Furthermore, the rain- 
fall which in any given region may be 
ample for certain drought-resisting 
plants, will be quite inadequate for seeds 
which have come from more humid coun- 
tries, and which demand a much larger 

92 



RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

amount of water for their full develop- 
ment. Hence the term "dry-land crops" 
simply means certain plants that are able 
to thrive and give good returns in regions 
where the rainfall is low or irregular. 
Again, it is commonly said that the cli- 
mate of the Great Plains region is 
changing and becoming drier and the 
same is popularly supposed to be true 
with regard to the rainfall of South 
Africa. 1 But is this really so? The rec- 
ords compiled by Mr. E. C. Chilcott and 
Dr. L. J. Briggs of the Department of 
Agriculture, are worthy of the close at- 

1 In the Transvaal, South Africa, the rainfall varies from 
about 15 inches at Bloemhof to 50 inches in the Woodbush 
Forest. The dry-land farmer in this colony has there- 
fore a good rainfall as compared with the dry-land far- 
mer in America. With regard to the total amount of rain, 
the Transvaal has nothing to complain of. But it is its 
unfortunate distribution that creates farming difficulties. 
The only certain rainfall occurs during the period of No- 
vember to March. Rains are indeed common in October 
but sometimes do not come. In this part of Africa there 
is no snow. 

93 



DRY-FARMING 

tention of every dry-farmer. The figures 
are taken from the records of the 
Weather Bureau for the Great Plains 
area for the past thirty years. In the 
year 1905, a season of excessive rain, the 
annual average for the Great Plains as a 
whole was 27 inches; but for the year 
1907 the total precipitation for the same 
year had sunk to a little less than 18 
inches. Notwithstanding this apparent 
decrease, Briggs emphatically states that 
"there is no foundation for the statement 
which has been made so often that the 
climate of the Great Plains as far as 
precipitation is concerned is permanently 
changed." Further, he clearly shows 
that if we divide the precipitation into 
ten-year periods and take the average for 
these periods that the rainfall during the 
years 1895-1905 exceeds the rainfall for 
the previous ten years 1885-1894, which 
includes the great drought of 1893 and 

94 



RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

1894 (annual average 15-16 inches), by 
only half an inch. Thus the only safe 
criterion of the rainfall of any region is 
the average amount for a period of at 
least ten years. And it is satisfactory to 
reflect, as Briggs remarks, that the Settle- 
ment of the Great Plains has been made 
on a normal rainfall which is far bet- 
ter than an agriculture established dur- 
ing a series of abnormally wet or dry 
years. 

Evaporation. 

So far as the writer is aware, Dr. 
Briggs of Washington was the first to 
call attention to the enormous impor- 
tance of evaporation in relation to dry- 
farming. And this is a matter of equal 
if not greater importance to the South 
African farmer in a land of hot suns, 
bare veldt, and dry, sweeping winds. To 
watch a terrific thunder-storm, to see riv- 

97 



DRY-FARMING 

ers of water pouring over the land, and a 
few hours later to walk over perfectly 
dry ground is a phenomenon familiar to 
every farmer in the semi-dry zone. This 
appalling waste is mainly due to hard 
impenetrable soil — in a word to surface 
run-off; and, secondly, to the sucking 
power of a summer sun. 

Evaporation therefore is a factor 
which should not be ignored in passing 
judgment on the agricultural produc- 
tiveness of any region. By the term 
evaporation is meant the number of 
inches of water which vaporizes or evapo- 
rates from a clean water surface in a 
freely exposed open tank during a given 
period. Thus the annual evaporation is 
the total number of inches of water which 
evaporates during the year, just as the 
precipitation is measured by the total 
number of inches of water falling into the 
tank, as rain or snow, during the year. 

98 



RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

Evaporation depends upon the tempera- 
ture of the evaporating surface, the dry- 
ness of the air, and the velocity of the 
wind. The hotter the day, the greater 
the evaporation; the drier the day, the 
greater the evaporation; the harder the 
wind blows, the greater the evaporation 
— the ceaseless sucking up of moisture. 
The amount of evaporation from an open 
tank of water is thus a measure of the 
evaporation of that locality. The higher 
the evaporation from the tank, the 
greater is the moisture demand made 
upon the soil. Briggs says: "Settlers 
looking into the possibilities of a new 
country inquire only regarding the rain- 
fall. The evaporation is not considered. 
This is doubtless largely due to the un- 
fortunate fact that evaporation data are 
not yet generally available. Such records 
would be of great value to the settler. In 
dry-farming the most favorable region, 

99 



DRY-FARMING 

other factors being equal, is obviously the 
one with the lowest evaporation. The 
demands upon the soil are here the small- 
est and in times of scanty rainfall the 
settler has a proportionately better 
chance to mature a fair crop." A series 
of evaporation determinations has been 
made recently by the Department of 
Agriculture at various points throughout 
the West during the six months of 
spring and summer. These tests were 
made by means of a freely exposed 
tank set in the soil, and some remarkable 
results were obtained. At North Dakota, 
with a summer rainfall of 13 inches 
the evaporation was 30 inches and at 
Amarillo, Texas, during the same period, 
with a summer rainfall of 13 inches, the 
evaporation was 54 inches. Summarizing 
these experiments, Briggs says : "In other 
words, with the same rainfall in North 
Dakota and at Amarillo, during the 

100 



n 

jo 
O 

I 

7> 
O 
H 
> 
H 

O 
Z 

►d 

r 
o 

H 
yi 

W 
X 
*d 

w 

JO 

s 
w 
z 




RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

growing season, the man at Amarillo 
would be working under conditions which 
are practically twice as severe as those in 
North Dakota. Under those conditions, 
why are we justified in talking of precipi- 
tation alone? What does precipitation 
alone mean in connection with such fig- 
ures as those? If we assume that the 
precipitation required is in proportion to 
the evaporation, then the man at Ama- 
rillo, in order not to have to work harder 
to conserve the moisture than the man in 
North Dakota would need practically 
twice the rainfall." In the well-known 
desert region called the Staked Plains of 
Texas, the evaporation is very much 
higher. At El Paso it is 58 inches, and 
at Yuma, Arizona, it is 56, while in New 
Mexico at the boundary between upper 
and lower California it reaches the 
startling figure of 72 inches. The dry- 
land farmer must therefore realize that 

103 



DRY-FARMING 

the annual rainfall is not the only factor 
to be considered in selecting his home- 
stead, since the greater the evaporation in 
any given locality, the harder will it be 
for him to conserve enough moisture to 
produce his crops. 

Finally a matter which should be care- 
fully studied in dry-farming is the effect 
of a mountainous locality on the rainfall. 
The following sketch will make this 
plain. 

The town of Deseret, Utah, lies well 
out in a broad valley, which is too dry for 
farming except with irrigation. About 
thirty miles southeast of Deseret is the 
town of Fillmore, which lies close to the 
western slope of a mountain range, the 
crest of which is 10,000 feet above sea 
level. The total annual rainfall at 
Deseret is 7.7 inches and at Fillmore 13.8 
inches, a difference due to the effect of 
the mountains. Richfield is situated only 

104 



RAINFALL AND EVAPORATION 

sixteen miles from Fillmore, but on the 
opposite side of the mountain range, and 
here the average annual rainfall is only 
5.5 inches. These figures clearly show 
what a difference the intervention of a 
mountain range may make upon the rain- 
fall of two places only a few miles apart. 



6 105 



CHAPTER V 

THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

TILLAGE is the most important 
operation in dry-farming, and 
upon it will mainly depend the success or 
failure of the crop. The modern plow is 
the product of many centuries of slow 
improvement, and during this time it has 
evolved from a crooked stick to an imple- 
ment of marvellous efficiency. One of 
the main objects of plowing is to leave 
the soil in such a condition that but little 
subsequent tillage will be needed to fit 
the land for the crop. A good plow 
should turn over the furrow slice in a 
loose and crumbling condition and at the 
same moment bury the weeds, stubble 
and trash. In this way the labor of har- 

106 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

rowing is greatly reduced; whereas flat- 
furrow plowing requires a great deal of 
harrowing before the field is left in fine 
and mellow tilth. 

Depth of Plowing. 

The dry-land farmer often asks, "How 
deep should I plow?" and again, "What 
is deep plowing?" This is a hard ques- 
tion to answer without some precise 
knowledge of the local conditions and the 
nature of the soil ; but as a general rule in 
dry-farming it may be emphatically said : 
Plow deep. Usually deep plowing 
means anything from seven to ten inches 
and over. Of course on the Plains it is 
not always possible to plow deep. The 
ground may be too hard, or perhaps the 
farmer has too few horses or the wrong 
kind of plow. But deep plowing is 
strongly to be recommended for several 
reasons: it increases the water-holding 

107 



DRY-FARMING 

capacity of most soils; admits sunlight 
and air; extends the root-feeding area; 
prevents light soils from being blown 
away ; encourages the growth of soil-bac- 
teria; prevents surface washing after 
heavy rains, and, lastly, enables plants to 
successfully withstand long periods of 
drought. Broadly speaking, a soil that is 
best suited to dry-farming is also one 
that may be plowed deeply, but the most 
successful results have been obtained in 
the case of deep uniform sandy loams. 
Deep plowing is strongly advocated by 
the dry- farmers of Utah, Montana, Kan- 
sas as well as by their brethren in South 
Africa. 

In some cases, however, deep plowing 
is undesirable, as for example where the 
soil is very shallow or consists of a cold 
and heavy clay. Turning up this sort of 
sub-surface soil may result in retarding, 
if not entirely checking, the germination 

108 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

of the seed. In fact it may be a fairly 
long time before such raw land becomes 
transformed into a mellow seed-bed. But 
this seldom occurs in dry-farming, as the 
summer fallow affords ample time for the 
weathering of the ground, and so the soil 
is generally well aerated before the crop 
is planted. If the land is plowed year 
after year at the same depth the sole of 
the furrow becomes packed by the 
smoothing action of the bottom of the 
plow, as well as by the tramping of the 
horses. This results in the formation of 
what is commonly known as a hard pan 
or plow-sole. A hard pan is injurious for 
three reasons : it decreases the water-hold- 
ing capacity of the soil; retards the 
growth of the roots ; and checks the capil- 
lary rise of moisture from the deeper 
layers below. It is thus a sound plan to 
vary the depth of plowing every two or 
three years. Another point worth noting 

111 



DRY-FARMING 

is to have the plowed land as long as pos- 
sible so as to avoid delay in turning and 
too much tramping at the corners. 

When to Plow. 

On every dry-farm the work should be 
so arranged that the plowing can be done 
at the best and the most convenient time 
of the year. In most States it is impos- 
sible to plow during the winter season 
and again during the summer when the 
ground has become so hard and dry that 
it cannot be turned over. Moreover, 
other imperative farm operations, such as 
seeding and harvesting, may preclude 
plowing. Plowing, therefore, must be 
done when the work of the farm and the 
physical condition of the soil will permit. 
Nevertheless, with good management 
there is ample time in the three seasons of 
the autumn, spring, and summer. In 
dry-farming fall plowing usually gives 

112 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

the heaviest crops and has several dis- 
tinct advantages over spring plowing: 

(1) It enables the land to absorb the 
winter rains and snow, and so retains a 
great deal of moisture. 

(2) It exposes the soil to the disin- 
tegrating action of the frost, setting free 
plant-food. 

(3) It permits the ground to settle 
and so tends to form a mellow compact 
seed-bed. 

But spring plowing will remain a uni- 
versal practice because in the rush of har- 
vesting, threshing, and hauling to mar- 
ket, the farmer seldom has time to finish 
the whole of his plowing in the fall. In 
the springtime the land is generally in a 
capital condition for plowing, but for the 
best results two things are essential: (a) 
packing the seed-bed and (b) following 
with a harrow to form a soil-mulch. 
Summer plowing may be done after the 

113 



DRY-FARMING 

seeding is over and before the harvest 
begins, if the ground is in a suitable 
state. In Montana, as well as in some 
other sections, the rainy season makes 
early- to mid-summer a favorable time 
to plow for the summer fallow and fall 
grains. It is also a particularly good 
season for breaking up new ground. In 
breaking care should be taken to lay the 
furrows down evenly and then to roll or 
pack them close to the sub-soil, following 
immediately with the harrow to fill up the 
spaces and form a surface-mulch. This 
will tend to check the excessive evapora- 
tion which goes on during the hot days 
of summer. Sod ground can be plowed 
with safety when considerably wetter 
than old land. 

On Plows. 

The ordinary moldboard plow does 
better work than the disc plow and should 

114 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

be used for breaking the prairie. But 
disc plows are now widely used and have 
a recognized place on the dry-farm. 
They do good work in old lands, the 
draft is lighter, and they can be used in 
drier soil than is practicable with the 
moldboard. A disc plow, if run deep, 
is of special value in breaking up the 
plow-sole which is apt to be formed by 
the too constant use of the moldboard 
plow set at the same depth year after 
year. Many farmers, however, try to cut 
too wide a furrow with their disc plow, 
which results in a poor job. Gang plows 
save much time and labor and enable one 
man to keep several horses at work. Rod- 
breaker plows in which steel rods take 
the place of the solid moldboard have 
been found useful in turning over virgin 
land. Subsoil plows are intended to 
loosen and pulverize the subsoil without 
inverting it or bringing it to the surface. 

115 



DRY-FARMING 

But at the present time they are not 
much used in dry-farming. Neverthe- 
less, such plows are sometimes used to 
good purpose. For example, heavy clays 
that require underdrainage are generally 
benefited by subsoiling, or they may be 
used for breaking up a hard pan or plow- 
sole. In subsoiling it is customary to 
turn the surface with a common stirring 
plow and to follow in this furrow with 
the subsoil plow. This loosens the soil to 
a depth of 18 to 24 inches from the top of 
the ground. 

In subsoiling dry fields, however, it 
will often be better to use a plow with 
a subsoiling attachment, running it a 
few inches below the bottom of the fur- 
row and so gradually getting to the de- 
sired depth by plowing year after year. 
By this method an excellent seed-bed 
may be secured. 

116 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

Harrowing. 

After plowing the most important 
operation in the dry-farm is the constant 
use of the harrow. The land should al- 
ways be harrowed the same day that it is 
plowed. The chief objects of harrowing 
are: to make a fine and mellow seed-bed, 
to warm the soil, to kill weeds, to prevent 
the evaporation of soil moisture, to retain 
the rains, and to encourage the germ life 
that is so essential to fertility. In har- 
rowing and plowing, let me state again, 
the soil should be taken at the right time, 
that is to say, when the land is moist — 
neither too wet nor too dry. Harrowing 
land that is inclined to be wet, or having 
furrows with a glazed appearance, will 
injure the mechanical texture of soil. It 
is better, therefore, to lose some of the 
water in the soil by evaporation rather 
than to run the risk of harming the land. 
All over the West it is a common practice 

117 



DRY-FARMING 

to harrow the small grains — wheat, oats, 
etc.,— in the spring. This is especially 
beneficial if heavy rains have firmed and 
puddled the soil, destroying the mulch of 
mellow earth. The weeder is better 
suited for harrowing wheat or other small 
grain than the common straight -tooth or 
slanting-tooth harrow; but if the ground 
is reasonably firm the ordinary light har- 
row will do good work. Every farmer 
should have a harrow with levers by 
which he can regulate the slant of the 
teeth. 

Mr. George L. Farrell, who has grown 
wheat for forty years in the Cache Val- 
ley, Utah, was once asked at a farmers' 
institute what he would do if the grain 
were too thin. "Harrow it," he replied. 
"But what would you do if it were too 
thick?" "Harrow it," came the same 
reply. And he was right in both cases. 
If the grain is too thin, tilt the teeth of 

118 






A HAY AND GRAIN DERRICK 
Used for Stacking Hay and Wheat in the Cache Valley, Utah 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

the harrow backward, and the harrowing 
will tend to make the wheat plants 
"stool" out better and give a much better 
stand. If the grain is too thick, run the 
sharp iron teeth straight, cut out some 
of the plants, and at the same time form 
a mulch, which cannot fail to be of benefit 
to the crop. In Utah it is usual to har- 
row the grain from three to five times 
during the growing season and thus the 
surface soil is prevented from caking and 
the fields kept free from weeds. It does 
not pay to use a two-horse harrow on 
large fields. Four-horse tools of all sorts 
are far more economical. With a three- 
section harrow and four horses a man or 
boy can cover over thirty acres a day, 
which makes it possible during spring 
and summer to till a fairly large area of 
land. 

There are several excellent implements 
for harrowing, the most noted being the 

121 



DRY-FARMING 

disc harrow, the Acme harrow, the spike- 
tooth and spring-tooth harrow. The disc 
harrow is an absolutely indispensable tool 
for dry-farming. Under ordinary con- 
ditions discs of fourteen inches diameter 
do much better work than those of eigh- 
teen or twenty inches. The disc should 
be used to break up the surface-sod or 
stubble immediately after the harvest, for 
where this is done it will be found that 
plowing will produce a much better seed- 
bed. Turning under the disked surface 
also leaves less air space and the seed-bed 
is made more compact and mellow. The 
disc is also useful in killing weeds on 
summer fallow lands, but it must be used 
when the weeds are small, for it will 
merely stimulate the growth of the larger 
weeds. Always lap the disc one half, 
which double-discs the ground and leaves 
it level. The disc is especially useful in 
cleaning old alfalfa (lucerne) fields; and 

122 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

the new alfalfa renovator— an implement 
consisting of a series of spikes arranged 
in disc form — has given excellent results. 
Other types of harrows such as the Acme 
and the spring-tooth are useful in form- 
ing the soil-mulch. The former is de- 
sirable for shallow surface cultivation 
and the latter for harrowing compact and 
tough soils. 

In dry-farming it is not necessary to 
harrow the land after every small rain, 
but it should not be delayed until the 
ground becomes baked and hard; and it 
must certainly be done after every heavy 
rain or melting snow as soon as the soil is 
in a fit state to be tilled. In short, there 
are few crops that will not be vastly im- 
proved by timely harrowing. Corn, and 
any of the small grains, may be harrowed 
until they are four inches or even more 
in height. In South Africa, McLaren, 
who raises large quantities of corn 

123 



DRY-FARMING 

(maize) by steam cultivation, has given 
up cultivation between the rows in favor 
of harrowing. This means a great sav- 
ing of time and labor. He harrows until 
the corn is 8 to 10, or even 12 inches in 
height with most satisfactory results. * 
Furthermore the harrow may be profit- 
ably used for many different sorts of 
farm work, such as harrowing native 
ranges, meadows and pastures to encour- 
age the growth of the finer and sweeter 
grasses, and also such lands as may be 
infested with cut-worms, army-worms, 
corn grubs, or grasshoppers. As a Wes- 
tern writer well remarks: "When you 
cannot think of any more important 
work, go to the field and harrow." 

Listing. 

In Kansas the practice of listing for 
corn is very common in dry-farming. 
The lister is simply a right- and left-hand 

124 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

plow joined together at the bar which 
throws the soil out each way, leaving 
an open furrow. The corn is sown in the 
bottom of this furrow either by a drill at- 
tachment or by a separate drill. It is 
most successful in dry years. In wet 
years listed corn suffers from washing 
and from the rain gathering in the fur- 
rows. The first cultivation is given with 
a spike-tooth harrow as soon as weeds 
start on the top of the ridges. This rolls 
a little fine soil down into the furrows. 
Later tillage sends more of the soil into 
the furrows until they are finally filled 
and the ground is left quite level. This 
filling of the furrows places the root-sys- 
tem several inches deeper than it would 
have been had the ground been plowed in 
the ordinary way and the planting done 
on a level surface. While listed corn 
stands the drought better than that 
planted on level, plowed ground, this 
7 125 



DRY-FARMING 

practice is not adapted to dry-farming in 
a region where the rainfall is fairly 
heavy; 1 since the injury caused by stand- 
ing water may be greater than the gain 
from deep planting. Further, as the seed 
is planted in the bottom of the freshly 
turned furrow where the soil is not as 
warm as close to the surface, listing 
should not be begun before the seed-bed 
is sufficiently warm. 

Cultivation. 

Cultivation is a very important opera- 
tion, especially with such crops as corn, 
and it should be continued until late in 
the season, but the first cultivation may 
be deeper than the later ones. How often 
to cultivate depends upon the nature of 

1 It is sometimes said that in localities where the rainfall 
is over 15 or 20 or 25 inches per annum it is incorrect to 
speak of dry-farming. This is clearly a misconception, for 
dry-farming is a relative term and may be followed with 
advantage whether the annual precipitation be 15, 25, 
30 inches or over. 

126 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

the soil, the dryness of the season, and 
the prevalence of weeds. It is a local and 
personal problem, but few farmers fully 
realize the loss of moisture caused by the 
growth of weeds. It is easy to tell when 
it will pay to cultivate. You have only to 
examine the surface soil. If it has a hard, 
baked appearance, or even a thin crust, 
cultivation should be done at once, for 
soil water is passing off rapidly into the 
air wherever the surface soil is hard. 
There is no hard-and-fast rule for the 
number of cultivations to be given in a 
season. Cultivate often enough to make 
the surface soil mellow, weedless and free 
from a crust. This may take six culti- 
vations or twelve. Note when the corn 
leaves begin to curl in the heat of the day, 
or the potatoes to shrivel. Then is the 
time for prompt and energetic cultiva- 
tion. Finally, all cultivation should be 
directed to establishing a moisture-saving 

127 



DRY-FARMING 

fallow which may be maintained for pe- 
riods of three months, six months, or one 
year. Such a fallow is to be well 
plowed in the first place and then kept 
constantly tilled to prevent the formation 
of a soil-crust. This fallow results in 
four things: (a) storage of rainfall, (b) 
destroys weeds, (c) admits sunshine and 
air, (d) encourages beneficial soil-germs. 

Weeding. 

The weeder is a modified harrow hav- 
ing one row, or more, of long curved, 
flexible teeth which stir the ground after 
the manner of a hay-rake. It is a most 
valuable implement for rapid and easy 
harrowing and should find a place on 
every dry-farm. Weeders can be em- 
ployed on wheat fields where the plants 
have become too large for the safe use of 
the ordinary steel-tooth harrow. On 
large farms it is customary to use four- 

128 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

horse gang weeders which cover the 
ground very rapidly. Weeders are use- 
ful for three purposes — (a) to kill very 
young weeds, (b) to preserve a shallow 
mulch, (c) to cover broadcasted seed. A 
weeder is not effective unless it is used 
often enough to prevent any weeds from 
getting too large to be destroyed. Since 
the weeder stirs the soil only an inch and 
a half to two inches deep, it should be 
supplemented by the cultivator, when- 
ever the soil gets hard. 

Rolling. 

In dry-land farming rolling is very 
important, because it compacts the sur- 
face soil and brings the particles closer 
together, so that the film water passes up 
more readily by capillary attraction. 
While passing upward it comes in con- 
tact with the roots of the plants and is ab- 
sorbed by them, but this water will pass 

129 



DRY-FARMING 

away from the surface unless it is har- 
rowed to establish a soil-mulch. The soil 
in a field that has been rolled is more 
moist on the top than if it had not been 
rolled, but the soil below the compacted 
portion is much drier than it would have 
been had the surface been left loose. 
That is to say, the upper five or six inches 
of soil have been made more moist by 
rolling, but at the expense of the soil 
beneath. 

Part of the loss of moisture from 
rolled soil is due to the fact that the sur- 
face is left very smooth and level, and 
offers less obstruction to the wind. The 
velocity with which the wind passes over 
rolled ground may be nearly twice as 
great as that over rough unrolled 
ground. This means that much more 
moisture is sucked up from the soil by 
the wind. The chief purpose of rolling 
in dry-land farming is to increase the 

130 



S3' 


a 

- 


B 


-<! 


<<f 


V 




> 


6, 


K 






(a 


K 


5 





c 


2 


OM 


w 


-i 




o 


3 


«! 


M 


4 


> 


£' 


S« 


3" 







2 


c 


w 


~- 


3 


2. 


n 


»q 


> 


p 


Cfi 


rr. 


H 


o 

3 


r 


3 


w 


3" 
re 


3 


3 


K) 


a 


o 


(I 


2 


T3 






Z 


n* 


o 




THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

supply of moisture for the seeds, but, of 
course, it is also useful in crushing lumps 
on soils which become cloddy. Great 
care, however, must be taken not to roll 
clayey soils when they are wet, as they 
are liable to become cemented into hard 
clods. In general it may be said that 
rolling accomplishes three very useful 
purposes: (a) it increases the water- 
holding capacity of light soils, (b) it aids 
the germination of seeds, and (c) crushes 
the lumps in cloddy soils. A tendency 
to-day, in America at least, is to restrict 
the use of the roller to light soils in order 
to make the soil firm, and to use the im- 
plement called the planker on heavy soils 
where fining the soil is the end desired. 

Planking and Packing. 

The planker is made by bolting four 
3-inch planks to two cross-pieces so as to 
present the sharp edge of each plank to 

133 



DRY-FARMING 

the ground. This implement is very 
useful in smoothing the surface and 
crushing clods. Its action is somewhat 
like that of a roller, but instead of press- 
ing down vertically it slides along the 
field shaving off the uneven places and 
filling up the hollows. As a pulverizer 
and clod crusher it is superior to the 
roller, but its packing action is not as 
great. The principle of packing com- 
bined with the soil-mulch is seen when 
the gardener presses down the soil 
around his vegetables and covers them 
then with loose soil, when the fruit- 
grower stamps the earth around the roots 
of the fruit tree but leaves it loose on top, 
and when the florist presses his seed into 
the soil, but scatters a little loose earth in 
the pot. The special implement called 
the sub-surface packer which has been 
devised for this work is described in the 
next chapter. 

134 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

Seeding. 

Having secured a good seed-bed by- 
deep plowing, harrowing and packing, it 
is now time to take up the question of 
seeding. In dry-farming all cereals are 
now put in with the drill and broadcast- 
ing has been entirely discarded. With a 
drill the seed can be placed evenly and 
the depth to which it is to be sown regu- 
lated at will. If the land has been sum- 
mer-fallowed there will usually be an 
earth-mulch on the surface of from three 
to six inches in depth. In this case the 
seed should be sown down below the 
mulch and placed in the moist soil. The 
young plants can easily strike upwards 
through several inches of loose earth, and 
if the seed is sown deep the roots enter at 
once into the moist soil. There are a 
number of excellent drills on the market 
and the choice of a seeder is largely a 
matter of personal opinion. The Mon- 

135 



DRY-FARMING 

tana Experiment Station has invariably 
secured the best results with a disc press- 
drill which puts the seed in very deeply 
and presses down the soil. A press-drill 
which firms the moist earth about the 
seed will give quicker germination, and a 
better stand of grain than a drill which 
simply sows the seed in loose soil. Again, 
with the press-drill there is a great saving 
of seed and where a large area is being 
sown this is an important item, more 
especially if first-class seed is used. The 
farmer who sows alfalfa broadcast often 
sows from 20 to 40 pounds per acre, 
whereas, if he employed a press-drill, from 
8 to 12 lbs. would be ample. The press 
drill has also given good results on the 
Wyoming dry-farms. Dr. V. T. Cooke 
of Cheyenne writes: "The press-drill is 
one of the essentials in dry-farming. 
This may be either of the shoe or the disc 
type. The disc-drill has some advan- 

136 




WHEAT GROWN CONTINUOUSLY, THIRD CROP, YIELD 4 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 

FORSYTH DRY-FARM, MONTANA 

Showing evil effect of constant cropping without summer fallowing or rotation 




WHEAT AFTER A MOISTURE-SAVING FALLOW, YIELD 25 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 
FORSYTH DRY-FARM, MONTANA 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

tages where there is much stubble or ref- 
use, like coarse manure on the ground, 
but on well-prepared summer-fallow 
ground the shoe -drill with press wheels 
following to firmly pack the seed prob- 
ably does the best work. In places where 
there are heavy clay soils to contend with 
a double press wheel should be used in- 
stead of the single press wheel ordinarily 
placed on these drills. If the soil bakes 
the double press wheel will leave a crack 
or opening in the center directly over the 
seed through which the germinating 
plantlets can push their way out of the 
ground. " 

In the case of a drill that does not 
press the soil about the seed, germina- 
tion may be hastened by following the 
seeder with a roller and then harrowing 
to check evaporation and prevent blow- 
ing. The proper depth of seeding will 
naturally depend on the character and 

139 



DRY-FARMING 

condition of the soil. But as a general 
rule in dry-farming the writer recom- 
mends deep seeding. However, land that 
is fall-plowed and well-settled need not 
be seeded as deep as loose spring- 
plowed ground. Again, the subsurface 
packer makes it possible to sow shallower 
than where it is not used. The best 
depth is the nearest point to the surface 
at which perfect sprouting is possible, or, 
in other words, where the right degree of 
warmth and moisture is present. But 
whether the seed is put in 2, 4, or 6 inches 
deep is a purely local problem of which 
the farmer himself must be the best 
judge. 

Lastly, thin seeding: It would be 
interesting to try and compute the enor- 
mous annual waste of seed in the semi- 
arid regions of the West. Unfortu- 
nately, not only does this superfluous 
seed represent a large loss in ready cash, 

140 



♦ 




BARLEY GROWN CONTINUOUSLY, THIRD CROP, YIELD 6 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 
FORSYTH DRY-FARM, MONTANA 

Showing evil effect of constant cropping without summer fallowing or rotation 




BARLEY AFTER A MOISTURE-SAVING FALLOW, YIELD 25 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 
FORSYTH DRY-FARM, MONTANA ] 



THE PROBLEM OF TILLAGE 

but it also means that the soil is robbed 
of its much needed moisture, which too 
often results in crop failure. In dry- 
farming light seeding almost always 
gives the heaviest yields : and the old cus- 
tom of sowing 1% to 2 bushels of grain 
to the acre is altogether wrong. In a 
recent experiment carried out by the 
Montana Experiment Station with 
spring wheat, oats, and barley, it was 
found that three pecks of seed (45 lbs.) 
gave better results than larger quantities. 
Again, in Utah, the heaviest yields of 
grain have been obtained with from two 
to four pecks (30-60 lbs.) of seed, while 
Campbell recommends the following 
amounts for well-fitted summer-tilled 
fields: winter wheat 18 to 20 pounds; 
spring wheat 20 to 25 pounds ; barley 35 
to 40 pounds per acre. Further, Cooke of 
Wyoming writes: "It is a recognized fact 
that we have been making the very 

143 



DRY-FARMING 

serious mistake of sowing too much seed 
per acre. The experience of the most 
intelligent farmers shows that by sowing 
thirty to forty pounds of wheat per acre 
in the fall better results will be obtained 
than with more seed." In short if the 
farmer has carefully selected his seed and 
properly tilled his ground, he will usually 
find that from two to three pecks of seed 
are ample for semi-arid lands. 



144 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

THE Campbell system of scientific soil 
culture, or as it is more commonly 
called the Campbell method of dry- farm- 
ing, originated with Mr. Hardy W. 
Campbell of Lincoln, Nebraska. Camp- 
bell has done much to popularize dry- 
farming, but he must be ranked as an 
agricultural evangelist rather than as an 
experimenter. Both on the public plat- 
form and in the pages of his periodicals 
his statements at times are somewhat 
loose and misleading. And to contend 
that the Campbell system is the sole 
method of dry-farming is of course ab- 
surd. Nevertheless it is not just to dis- 

145 



DRY-FARMING 

parage Campbell's missionary work 
among the farmers of the West. It is 
often said, and truly so, that Jethro Tull 
was the first exponent of the so-called 
Campbell system of soil culture; but it 
should not be forgotten that Tull did not 
work under semi-arid conditions, and, 
secondly, that although his practice was 
successful his theories were erroneous. 
Be that as it may the fact remains that a 
great number of western farmers be- 
lieve in Campbell's teaching and many 
have followed his system or like methods 
with success. 

The machine called the Campbell sub- 
surface packer, under certain conditions, 
gives good results; but it must be used 
with care. It is seldom of much use on 
soil that has had time to settle and be- 
come packed. It is therefore more 
valuable on spring than on fall plow- 
ing, and where loose manure has been 

146 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

applied to the land. On wet, clayey- 
ground it may seriously injure the me- 
chanical and physical texture of the soil. 
The story of the origin of the Camp- 
bell system 1 of dry-farming is as fol- 
lows: In the year 1879 Mr. Campbell 
migrated from New England and settled 
in what was then known as the Territory 
of Dakota— since divided into the two 
States of North and South Dakota. His 
agricultural career was not startling, 
merely the hard, grim struggle of the 
prairie farmer; wheat-growing year in 
and year out; alternate failure and suc- 
cess, and always the fear of drought, the 
blizzard, rust, hail, and frost. At that 
time it was widely stated that the com- 
mon failure of the wheat crop was due to 
the exhaustion of the fertility of the soil 
by the heavy crops of the first few years, 

1 The following account of this particular method of dry- 
farming is taken from Campbell's Manual of Scientific 
Soil Culture, an interesting but diffusely written volume. 

8 147 



DRY-FARMING 

and, further, that these lands would never 
yield large crops again. Mr. Campbell 
was convinced that this was a false 
notion, and that the true explanation — 
the key to the problem — would be found 
in a better and a more scientific system of 
soil culture. It was not until the year 
1892 that any definite results were 
obtained. This was a period of great ac- 
tivity in the study of the soil, and Camp- 
bell was able to make use of the 
investigations of Hilgard of California, 
of King and Goff in Wisconsin, and of 
the illuminating writings of Roberts and 
Bailey of Cornell. 

The Sub-surface Packer, 

The invention of the Campbell sub- 
surface packer may be traced to a simple 
observation. In very dry seasons Mr. 
Campbell 'perceived that the growth of 
the grain was always better and thriftier 

148 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

in certain places ; as, for example, where 
the soil was compacted when a horse 
stepped over the plowed field leaving 
the impress of its hoof -prints on land 
which was afterwards sown to wheat ; or, 
perchance, where the wheel of a heavy 
farm wagon had rolled over the furrow- 
slice, there the growth of the grain was 
always taller, darker, healthier in color, 
wide-leaved, giving a greater stooling 
and larger heads. This was the first great 
principle, namely, that the soil in the 
lower part of the furrow had been made 
firm and fine — in a word, compacted. 
But Mr. Campbell also noted that wher- 
ever the horse had lifted his foot a little 
loose earth was left behind; just as, in 
like manner, the rolling of the wagon 
wheel let fall a little loose soil. Here was 
the second great principle, namely, the 
formation of the "soil" or "earth-mulch." 
Thus the purpose of the Campbell sub- 

149 



DRY-FARMING 

surface packer was simply to imitate the 
horse-foot track in the entire field by 
firming the lower part of the furrow- 
slice and leaving the top portion loose to 
form a soil-mulch. The effect of sub- 
surface packing, therefore, is to draw 
the moisture from the deeper strata be- 
low, just as is the case with the ordinary 
roller; but, further, and most important, 
to check the evaporation of the moisture 
from the surface by the formation of an 
earth blanket or soil-mulch. This upward 
passage of water brought about by sub- 
surface packing is of the highest impor- 
tance in the long dry periods so common 
in western America and South Africa. 

Mr. Campbell writes : "When we reach 
a point in the extreme heated portion of 
the last afternoon prior to a heavy rain, 
when our supply of moisture is beginning 
to shorten, the fact that we have by this 
sub-surface packing been able to lift the 

150 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

water stored below a little faster may be 
the means of doubling or trebling the 
yield." 

In a word the proper use of the sub- 
surface packer puts the soil into a firm 
and mellow state, whilst the harrow 
forms a fine loose mulch of some two or 
more inches deep, and the drill sets the 
seed in a fine, firm, moist, mellow bed— 
an ideal place for rapid and vigorous 
sprouting. According to Mr. Campbell, 
any one who breaks prairie lands and 
plants them without first devoting a full 
season to careful cultivation in order to 
get the soil in the proper physical condi- 
tion for the promotion of plant growth, 
and also to store a sufficient amount of 
moisture within reach of the plant roots 
to carry the growing crop through a pro- 
tracted drought is simply inviting failure, 
should a season of unusual dryness fol- 
low. Summing up, it may be said that 

151 



DRY-FARMING 

sub-surface packing or the fine firm fit- 
ting of the lower portion of the furrow- 
slice results in three things: (1) The 
water-holding capacity — or soil reservoir 
— where the main roots grow is enlarged ; 
(2) the movement of the moisture from 
the lower and deeper soil layers to the 
roots of the plants is quickened; (3) the 
area of the feeding roots is greatly ex- 
tended. These three factors usually re- 
sult in carrying a crop successfully 
through a long, hot, dry period ; whereas 
a crop grown under the ordinary meth- 
ods would be seriously stunted in growth 
if, indeed, it survived at all. 

Summer Culture. 

More important, however, than the in- 
vention of the sub-surface packer is the 
method advocated by Mr. Campbell for 
the conservation of soil moisture over a 
period of from six months to one year, 

152 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

and what he terms "Summer Culture." 1 
The credit, however, of introducing this 
system undoubtedly belongs to the agri- 
culturists of Utah, who have successfully 
used moisture-saving summer fallows in 
dry-land farming for over forty years. 

In the springtime, as soon as the frost 
is well out of the ground, land that has 
already been plowed is gone over twice 
with a disc harrow. This produces a 
mulch which prevents evaporation ; it also 
opens and loosens the surface, so that the 
rains quickly percolate into the soil. The 
land is then harrowed after each rain with 
an ordinary harrow. If the rain is so 
heavy as to pack the surface of the soil, 
the disc harrow must again be used. 
Naturally, the kind of tool for each sub- 
sequent cultivation will depend upon the 
state of the land, the rainfall, and the 

1 This name is rather vague : summer tillage and sum- 
mer tilled are better terms. 

153 



DRY-FARMING 

weed growth. But, since the main object 
is to store water in the soil, two things 
must be constantly kept in mind : first, to 
prevent the surface of the soil from form- 
ing a hard crust, and, secondly, to pre- 
vent the growth of weeds. This tillage 
may continue for a matter of two or three 
months. 

Then at the beginning of the rainy 
season comes the plowing, which is 
done to a depth of 7 or 8 inches— the 
deeper the better. If the above plan has 
been properly followed out the soil will 
be moist and easily pulverized by the 
plow. Furthermore, the surface hav- 
ing been made fine, there are no clods to 
turn to the bottom of the furrow. If you 
have a sub-surface packer it should be 
used while the soil is still moist, making 
the lower half of the furrow fine and firm. 
Next, follow with an Acme or a common 
harrow which will form a mellow mois- 

154 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

ture-saving mulch. From this time on, 
the field must be cultivated after every 
rain and often enough to prevent any 
weeds from growing. It is then seeded 
to winter wheat or left over for the fol- 
lowing spring crop. It will thus be seen 
that two decided benefits accrue from 
Mr. Campbell's method of summer till- 
age: (1) The storage of the rainfall of 
part of the season. Experiments have 
shown that with the loam soil and clay 
sub-soils of the western prairies but little 
moisture is lost by percolation. (2) By 
maintaining a loose mulch on the surface 
and so preserving the moisture under- 
neath and by allowing the sunshine and 
air to permeate into the ground the ac- 
tivity of the beneficial soil-germs is en- 
couraged. 

Regarding the possibilities of summer 
culture in semi-arid States, Campbell 
writes : 

155 



DRY-FARMING 

"It is our opinion, based on practical 
results and observation of conditions 
similar to those in western Kansas, that 
by the summer culture plan, storing the 
water the entire season and raising crops 
the following year, much larger average 
crops may be grown than the present 
average in Iowa or Illinois. In fact, we 
do not believe we overdraw when we say 
that in the more arid portion of the semi- 
arid belt by the summer culture plan, 
only cropping every other year, we can 
raise more wheat at less cost in ten years 
than can be grown in the more humid 
portions of the belt in ten consecutive 
crops by the ordinary plan. By our 
method we have the advantage of only 
seeding half the land. The great value 
of work along this line lies in grasping 
fully the idea of storing and conserving 
the rain waters, and studying carefully 
the necessary physical condition of the 

156 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

soil and endeavoring to bring it to the 
highest degree of perfection." 

Mr. A. M. Ten Eyck, Professor of 
Agronomy at the Kansas State Agricul- 
tural College, puts the whole matter con- 
cisely as follows: — 

"The principle of loosening the surface 
of the soil and keeping a mulch of mel- 
low soil in order to prevent the evapora- 
tion of the moisture is well recognized by 
farmers generally, and is practised to a 
greater or less extent in the cultivation of 
all kinds of crops. In the Campbell sys- 
tem of culture the purpose is to keep a 
mellow soil-mulch on the surface of the 
land all the time, not only during the 
growing of the crop, but in the intervals 
between harvest and seeding time. Thus, 
after the crop is planted, the land is kept 
cultivated with the harrow or weeder in 
order to break the surface crust and con- 
serve the soil moisture, and, following out 

159 



DRY-FARMING 

the same principle, the harrowing or 
work with the weeder is continued after 
the grain or corn (maize) is up, and 
during the growing period frequent cul- 
tivation is practised. After the crop is 
harvested the cultivation is not discon- 
tinued, but the surface of the ground is 
loosened as soon as possible after the crop 
is removed by the use of the disc harrow, 
and thus the soil is kept continually in a 
condition not only to prevent the loss of 
the water already stored in the soil, but 
this same condition and mellow surface 
favors the absorption of rain and largely 
prevents the loss of water by surface 
drainage." 

Summer culture is, therefore, different 
from summer fallowing, for the sole aim 
of the first is to keep the land constantly 
stirred to conserve the rainfall, whereas 
the object of the latter is simply to rest 
the ground by letting it lie idle. Further- 

160 



THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 

more, the old idea of allowing the weeds 
to grow in order to be turned under for 
green manure, as commonly practised by 
the summer-fallow system, is condemned 
by Campbell, who lays special stress on 
clean and continuous tillage for the con- 
servation of moisture. His experiments 
clearly show the marked difference in 
yield between ground that has been sum- 
mer tilled and land which has had its soil 
moisture sapped to such a degree by 
growing weeds that it breaks up on 
plowing into a lumpy condition, and 
cannot be made into a moist, mellow, seed- 
bed. Mr. Campbell lays emphasis on the 
need of local experience. He says : "The 
mistake of the pioneer settlers was that 
they tried to farm in the West as they 
had done in the East, and the result was 
disastrous failure." But he also insists 
on the value of learning. "The ideal 
farmer is first of all a student, then an 

161 



DRY-FARMING 

investigator, and, finally, a specialist; 
ever alert for new things and new ideas, 
open-minded and free from conceit; a 
man familiar with what is going on 
around him, and yet intensely devoted to 
his own work." 

That the Campbell method is likely to 
stand the test of time there can be no rea- 
sonable doubt, since it is based on certain 
fundamental principles of farm practice, 
which both experience and experiment 
have shown to be correct. Moreover, it 
can never become merely a fashionable 
agricultural fad, for it demands a high 
degree of manual skill, and hard and con- 
tinuous toil. Such a system is not likely 
to attract the rural dilettante or the lazy 
farmer. 



162 



CHAPTER VII 

, DRY-FARMING ZONES 

ALTHOUGH dry-farming is now 
l practised in almost every State in 
the semi-arid West, it is desirable to rec- 
ognize three distinct areas each of which 
has certain peculiarities of climate and 
soil. The first has been termed the Great 
Plains; the second, the Great Basin; and 
the third, the Columbia Basin Uplands. 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

The vast territory now widely known 
as the Great Plains area is bounded on 
the north by Canada, on the west by the 

163 



DRY-FARMING 

Rocky Mountains, on the east by the 
ninety-eighth meridian, 1 and on the 
south by the thirty-second parallel of 
latitude. 2 

In the long-settled States of the East, 
the agricultural industry has been placed 
on a more or less stable basis; but in the 
West many problems are still new and 
unsolved. Writing on this subject, 
Chilcott says : 

"It is therefore within the Great 
Plains area that most of the great prob- 
lems of dry-land agriculture must be 
solved. It is here that experiments must 
be carried on which shall determine what 
are the best methods of agriculture for 
the conservation of moisture, and the 
maintenance of the fertility of the soil 

1 This line passes through the States of North and South 
Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Panhandle 
of Texas. 

2 The southern limit of the Staked Plains. South of this 
line the country changes and slopes rapidly toward the 
Gulf and the Rio Grande. 

164 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

under climatic conditions which exist 
nowhere else in the United States. Ex- 
periments must here be conducted that 
shall determine what portions can be used 
for general dry-land agriculture and 
what portions are unfitted for that pur- 
pose. And when it has been demon- 
strated that certain portions of the area 
are unsuited to general dry-land agri- 
culture, it must be determined how these 
portions can best be utilized for stock- 
raising ; and where this industry becomes 
the predominating one, means must be 
devised for supplementing the natural 
grasses of the range with forage plants, 
either annual or perennial." 

There are many persons who believe 
that the climate of the Great Plains is 
changing. Studies in climatology, how- 
ever, do not support this theory, and this 
portion of the United States is likely to 
remain an area of comparatively light 

9 165 



DRY-FARMING 

rainfall, which is probably one of the 
main reasons for its great and sustained 
fertility. For, while the scanty rainfall 
has not tended to induce a luxuriant 
growth of vegetation during ages past, it 
has served to preserve within the soil such 
products of decomposition as have been 
produced; and the evaporation being 
very great, the plant-foods have been kept 
near the surface instead of being washed 
away, or lost by seepage. Again, the 
methods now devised for the conserva- 
tion of soil moisture and the introduction 
of drought-resistant plants are enabling 
farmers to raise satisfactory crops even 
in severe droughts. 

Problems. 

The problems to be solved in this 
region are simple, but none the less im- 
portant. How can the largest yields of 
the four staple crops — wheat, oats, bar- 

166 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

ley and corn — be obtained? (1) By rais- 
ing the same crop continuously by 
ordinary methods of farming, (2) by 
continuous cropping with the same crop, 
using the best methods of cultivation for 
moisture conservation, or (3) by alter- 
nate cropping and summer fallowing. 
The various Experiment Stations now 
established by the United States and the 
State Legislatures will do much to help 
the farmer in solving these problems. 

Early Mistakes. 

As I have elsewhere noted the settlers 
who came from the East soon found that 
with the fertile and easily tilled lands of 
the West, it was easy, in good seasons, to 
raise large crops. This led to very casual 
and slovenly methods of tillage. Plow- 
ing was carelessly done to a depth of 
only three or four inches. Sometimes, 
indeed, the land was plowed only once in 

167 



DRY-FARMING 

three or four years, the grain being 
"stubbled in" on the ground of last year's 
crop ; or the land was prepared for seed- 
ing simply by means of the disc harrow. 
At first this system of farming yielded 
fairly successful returns, but a series of 
dry years culminating in the disastrous 
drought of 1894 taught the farmers a 
bitter lesson, and, unfortunately, served 
to depopulate a large part of the Great 
Plains region. It is commonly said that 
the failure of these pioneer farmers was 
owing to the exhaustion of soil fertility; 
but in the opinion of the writer it was 
due far more to a lack of moisture. If 
these early settlers had known how to till 
their fields in order to conserve the maxi- 
mum amount of soil water, it is more 
than probable that, even with continuous 
cropping to wheat, the soil-germs, grow- 
ing in a moist, mellow seed-bed, would 
have supplied the necessary plant-foods 

168 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

even in the most trying drought. Be 
that as it may, the settlers in this region 
are fast learning the great lesson of dry- 
farming, namely,— thorough tillage. 

Better Methods. 

A simple but important new practice 
is now being widely advocated. It has 
been known for long that the loss of 
moisture from a field of stubble left bare 
by harvesting the crop is greater than 
at any other time. This is especially true 
of semi-arid districts where the tempera- 
ture and wind velocity are usually very 
high at this time of the year. To pre- 
vent this waste of moisture it is cus- 
tomary to disc and plow the land as soon 
as possible after the crop has been har- 
vested. 

The better methods of farming, as out- 
lined in a previous chapter, consist in 
storing as much of the rainfall as pos- 

171 



DRY-FARMING 

sible, by deep and early fall plowing. If 
the land is plowed during hot, dry 
weather and is then allowed to lie loosely 
as it is left by the plow, there is liable to 
be a great loss of moisture through 
evaporation. It is therefore essential to 
compact the soil as soon as possible after 
plowing. This can be done in several 
ways: by the use of the subsurface 
packer, by the common disc harrow, with 
the discs set nearly straight, or by the or- 
dinary steel-toothed harrow. In fact any 
implement may be used which will pack 
the soil and leave a loose mulch on the 
surface. 

Again, if rains occur after the plowing 
and packing have been done, they tend to 
form a crust on the surface and the loss 
of soil moisture will be very great. It 
may therefore be advisable to harrow the 
surface with a light harrow after every 
rain until the snows come, unless it is 

172 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

deemed best to leave the land in the 
rough furrow to be weathered during the 
winter storms. These are matters a 
farmer must judge for himself. In the 
springtime the land should be harrowed 
after every rain until the grain has 
reached a height of three or four inches. 
This will tend to conserve the moisture 
and destroy weeds. The practice of 
alternate cropping and summer fallow- 
ing is common throughout the Great 
Plains, 1 but it has not given such good 
results as in the Great Basin, where most 
of the rain falls during the winter 
months, and crop rotation, combined with 
green manuring, has proved a more 
profitable system. Finally, the intro- 
duction of drought-resistant crops such 
as Durum Wheat, Kherson or Sixty- 
Day Oats and various strains of 

1 In the Great Plains area most of the rain falls during 
the summer months. 

173 



DRY-FARMING 

Sorghums has done much to make 
farming in this region much less preca- 
rious and uncertain than formerly. In a 
word, the shiftless and improvident 
methods of the past are giving way to a 
new era of better and more scientific 
farming. 

THE GREAT BASIN 

The agricultural region known as the 
Great Basin is a vast tract of country 
lying between the Rocky Mountains and 
the Sierra Nevada. It comprises a large 
and irregular body of land lying chiefly 
in the States of Utah, Nevada, Oregon 
and California, where the rivers finding 
no outlet to the ocean flow into various 
lakes and sinks. 1 The Great Salt Lake 
of Utah is the most famous body of water 

1 A sink is a body of water originally fresh, without an 
outlet, becoming salt through evaporation. 

174 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

in this region. By far the larger part of 
the Great Basin lies at an altitude of 
over 4200 feet above sea level. The 
farms in the valleys above the water- 
courses have mostly been placed under 
irrigation, while those on the higher 
mesas 1 which cannot be reached by canals 
remain to be reclaimed by dry-farming. 
On a map the Great Basin looks just like 
a huge mass of protoplasm as seen under 
a high-power microscope with three ir- 
regularly shaped arms. One arm reaches 
into Oregon, another into California, 
and the third into Utah ; but the body lies 
altogether in the State of Nevada. 

Vegetation. 

In the northern and central portions of 
the Great Basin the higher and better- 
watered lands are covered with sage- 
brush, easily recognized by its green- 

1 Mesa, a high plain or table-land. 

175 



DRY-FARMING 

gray foliage ; while here and there in the 
mesas you note the dark green of the rab- 
bit-brush and scattered tufts of different 
hardy grasses. Along the foot-hills 
cedars are seen marking outcrops on 
stony soil. Far down below in the valleys 
on the heavy salt-filled soils the grease- 
wood becomes the dominant shrub and the 
sedge strives with the saltbush according 
as the moisture is scant or the alkali 
abundant. To the south of this region 
the sage-brush is replaced by the creosote 
bush; while along the water-courses wil- 
lows and cotton woods are common; but, 
aside from these, the arable lands of the 
Great Basin are treeless and readily 
brought under the plow. 

Fertility. 

It is commonly held that the con- 
tinuous growth of any one crop, such as 
wheat, will rapidly reduce and finally ex- 

176 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

haust the fertility of any soil. 1 It is 
therefore surprising to learn that in some 
of the older valleys of the Great Basin 
where wheat has been grown for close on 
half a century that there seems to be no 
trace of diminished fertility. Indeed, 
some authorities say that those fields are 
producing heavier crops than when first 
plowed. The reason of this sustained 
yield is made plain when we remember 
that most of the grain of the dry -lands of 
the Great Basin is "headed" instead of 
being cut with a binder, and where such a 
large amount of straw is plowed under 
there is probably no real reduction in the 
humus of the soil. But even where the 
binder is used, it is more than likely that 
the surface cultivation which is so widely 
practised in this region for the conserva- 
tion of moisture also encourages the 

1 This has been shown in a striking manner in the State 
of Minnesota, where the continuous production of wheat 
has worn out the once rich soils of that region. 

177 



DRY-FARMING 

growth and activity of those soil-germs 
which are so helpful in supplying plant- 
food for the use of the subsequent crop. 

Rainfall. 

In the Great Basin, as in nearly all of 
the United States lying west of the 
Rocky Mountains, the larger part of the 
rainfall occurs during winter instead of 
in summer, as is the case in the Great 
Plains region. In general, rains can be 
more easily saved and stored up for 
future use when they fall during the win- 
ter season. This is especially true when 
the rainfall of any region is too light to 
produce a crop every year, and summer 
fallowing and alternate-year cropping is 
necessary to conserve the scanty supply. 1 
When rain falls during the cold season, a 
much smaller amount is evaporated than 

1 The average rainfall for the State of Utah is about 12 
inches per annum. 

178 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

in the long, hot days of summer; and, 
consequently, much more sinks into the 
ground. Moreover, recent experiments 
have shown that when rain falls on warm, 
dry ground it takes at least one fourth of 
an inch to wet the top and to reach the 
moist soil below, while on heavier lands 
at least one half inch is needed to pene- 
trate the hard, parched surface-soil. 

Furthermore, on a fine-textured soil 
having a high water-holding capacity 
slow rains and snow percolate deeply 
during the cold winter months, and there 
is but little surface run-off. But in 
places where the winters are dry and 
severe and the ground is solidly frozen, 
rainfalls in winter may be largely 
wasted by surface run-off, and also by 
evaporation before the ground has time 
to thaw out in the spring; while on poor 
soils of low water-holding capacity, rains 

181 



DRY-FARMING 

are liable to be lost by leaching where the 
land is bare of crop. This all goes to 
show that the three factors of climate, 
season, and soil must be constantly borne 
in mind when dealing with the subject of 
summer or winter rainfall. 

Tillage. 

The usual methods of tillage in the 
Great Basin consist of deep plowing, 
frequent cultivation, and alternate-year 
cropping. Autumn-sown wheat has been 
so far the chief crop grown on dry lands. 
The land is then plowed as soon as pos- 
sible, and left in the rough furrow all 
winter. As soon as the winter rains have 
thoroughly soaked into the ground, sur- 
face cultivation is begun. This is usually 
done by means of a disc-harrow. Some- 
times a shallow summer plowing is given 
to turn under any weeds. In the late 
summer a spike-toothed harrow is used 

182 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

to form a fine seed-bed, and the next crop 
is sown in the month of September or 
early in October. As the winter rains 
tend to compact the soil it is usual to 
lightly harrow the wheat crop in the early 
spring, as once it starts to grow nothing 
more can be done to conserve the mois- 
ture. The grain is usually harvested with 
a header so that there is always a large 
amount of straw to plow under. 

The old agricultural practice of fal- 
lowing or plowing land and then leaving 
it untilled for a time was adopted to 
render the soil more tender and mellow, 
and at the same time to destroy weeds. 
But in the Great Basin, where dry-farm- 
ing is now much in vogue, the term 
"fallow" is commonly used to mean land 
left bare but constantly stirred to con- 
serve moisture. All farmers know that 
moisture is lost very rapidly from a soil if 
the surface is not stirred; and so with 

183 



DRY-FARMING 

crops that cannot be inter-tilled, such as 
wheat, oats, and barley, much moisture is 
wasted by direct evaporation during the 
growing season; but with crops that can 
be inter-tilled during the growing sea- 
son, such as corn (maize), potatoes, and 
mangels, a much larger amount of mois- 
ture can be held in the soil by means of 
the soil mulch or dust blanket, as it is 
commonly called. 

Depth of Soil. 

Thus it is manifest that the success of 
dry-farming depends upon the possibil- 
ity of storing enough water in the soil to 
carry the crop to maturity; and, conse- 
quently, the water-holding capacity of 
any soil becomes a matter of great im- 
portance. The dry -land farmer should, 
therefore, carefully survey his fields, and 
unhesitatingly select the deep, rich, mel- 
low lands in preference to the poor, light 

184 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

and sandy soils whenever the storage of 
water from one season to another is the 
main object in view. 

In general the soils of the Great Basin 
are deep and retentive and this is espe- 
cially true of Utah. Prof. J. C. Hogen- 
son writes: "In selecting soil for an arid 
farm of course we know that we should 
choose a soil that is quite retentive of 
moisture. But I believe that above all 
we should choose a deep soil rather than 
the kind of soil, for if we have a deep soil, 
even though it be somewhat less retentive 
of moisture, we can cultivate it in such a 
manner as to store the moisture there to a 
considerable depth, and that is better 
than a more retentive soil which is poorly 
cultivated." Again he remarks: "In 
order to grow wheat successfully on dry 
land, it is absolutely necessary that the 
land be thoroughly prepared before the 
crop is planted. I do not believe that a 

10 185 



DRY-FARMING 

person can make a success of dry-farm- 
ing who is not in the habit of thoroughly- 
preparing his land before the crop is 
sown. In fact, if the land is not thor- 
oughly prepared, more than one half of 
the profits which might be derived are 
lost." And finally: "We have found 
that on an average of a number of years 
deep seeding has given us better results 
than shallow seeding, because in the deep 
seeding the seeds are always put below 
the dry soil mulch, where they can get 
the moisture necessary for rapid germi- 
nation." 

Crops. 

In the Great Basin wheat and lucerne 
are the chief crops raised in dry-farming. 
The varieties of wheat are nearly all light- 
colored and belong to the class commer- 
cially known as "Soft Wheats" of which 
"Kufoid" and "Gold Coin" are the most 

186 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

commonly grown. Turkey Red is also 
being largely sown. On the State ex- 
perimental farms different varieties of 
Durum wheat, the spring wheat of 
the Upper Mississippi Valley, such as 
Fife and Blue-stem, together with some 
types of hard winter wheats, are being 
tested. 

In general the wheats of the Great 
Basin are very much mixed, and grading 
and selection are urgently needed. Pub- 
lic attention has been called to this matter 
by Mr. William R. Jardine, the United 
States Agronomist, who has been trying 
to persuade the farmers to grow one 
variety for the whole semi-arid belt in 
order to obtain a better price for a uni- 
form wheat. The Utah wheats have been 
found to have a fairly high percentage 
of gluten and so are usually blended with 
the softer California wheat, and there is 
but little doubt that with proper care in 

187 



DRY-FARMING 

the selection of seed the Great Basin will 
become one of the finest wheat-growing 
countries in the world. 

Alfalfa (Lucerne). 

Alfalfa is the standard forage crop. 
At first it was grown only under irriga- 
tion, but it is now being widely cultivated 
on the dry lands. It is important to note 
that up to the present no serious effort 
has been made to secure varieties suited 
to dry-land farming, and so it happens 
that seed from irrigated land is almost 
invariably sown on dry lands. It is prob- 
able that drought-resistant varieties 
could be developed in a comparatively 
short time if proper attention were given 
to selecting seed that has been grown 
upon dry lands, Farmers should insist 
upon seed merchants classifying alfalfa 
seed thus: (a) Seed from dry lands, 
and (b) seed grown on irrigated lands. 

188 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

It is highly probable that the method of 
sowing alfalfa in rows wide enough to 
permit of inter-tillage will be found to 
be the best plan for raising forage as well 
as for seed production. As Mr. Scofield 
writes in his monograph on this subject: 
"It is well known that isolated alfalfa 
plants when allowed to mature on these 
dry lands produce relatively large quan- 
tities of seed. This is probably due, in 
part, to a better illumination on all sides 
of the plant, resulting in a larger number 
of flowers, in part to the drier air sur- 
rounding these flowers during the pol- 
lenation period, which appears to have 
some bearing on seed production, and in 
part to the greater ease of access for in- 
sects of various kinds that promote 
pollenation. It is certainly true that the 
partial isolation of the plants secured by 
row planting results in greatly increased 
yields of seed per plant, and there is 

191 



DRY-FARMING 

strong probability that the yields per 
acre would be larger, so that experiments 
to determine this point would be well 
justified.' ' 

Seeding. 

In the Great Basin thin or light seed- 
ing has been found to give the best re- 
sults. A large quantity of seed is often 
the cause of crop failure ; because a heavy 
seeding makes an instant demand on the 
moisture close to the surface before the 
young and tender plants can strike their 
roots down into the deep soil. The re- 
sult is a severe struggle for existence 
among the individual plants and crop 
failure should the drought continue. 
Speaking on this subject Merrill re- 
marks: "When Bishop Farrell and Mr. 
Salisbury first started their experiments 
in the Cache Valley they sowed the same 
amount of seed on their land that they 

192 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

had been accustomed to sow on irrigated 
land, namely, a bushel and a half (90 
lbs.) to two bushels and a half (150 lbs.) , 
and as a consequence there was not suffi- 
cient moisture in the ground to nourish 
the plants which came up and wilted 
away and died." Thus, in the Great 
Basin the farmers have learned the lesson 
of putting merely sufficient seed on the 
land for the available supply of moisture. 
Thus, whereas in the more humid regions 
of the United States farmers sow sixty 
to ninety pounds of wheat to the acre and 
fifteen to twenty pounds of lucerne on 
the dry lands of the Great Basin, far 
heavier crops are usually obtained when 
only thirty to forty pounds of wheat and 
eight to ten pounds of lucerne per acre 
are sown. But no hard and fast rule can 
be given ; for the same amount of seed will 
seldom give the same results in different 
localities. 

193 



DRY-FARMING 

Rotation. 1 

It is of interest to note that so far crop 
rotation has not played a prominent part 
in the agricultural practice of Utah, and 
Merrill makes this plain in a recent ad- 
dress: "I want to object to the idea that 
has been advanced here, that we need to 
rotate our crops. If we grow a crop of 
corn — maize — on the land, alternating 
with wheat, it simply means that that 
corn is going to take so much moisture 
out of the land." 

Summing up it may be said that dry- 
farming in the Great Basin is based on 
certain fundamental principles which 
have been worked out by the farmers 
themselves and their striking success has 
been mainly due to a combination of five 
factors : ( 1 ) Deep plowing to increase the 
capacity of the soil for holding moisture. 

1 Second Annual Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Congress, 
Salt Lake City. 

194 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

(2) Constant harrowing to form a soil- 
mulch. (3) The summer fallow to rest 
the soil, to encourage the nitrifying bac- 
teria, and to carry over the rainfall from 
one season to another. (4) Fall plow- 
ing. (5) A small quantity of seed, so as 
not to draw too heavily on the limited 
amount of moisture in the soil before the 
plants are strong enough to resist 
drought. In a word, the farmers of this 
region have concentrated their whole 
attention on one problem, namely, the 
conservation of water for the use of the 
crop. Furthermore, the more progres- 
sive settlers are convinced that too many 
different types of cereals are being 
grown and an effort is now being made 
to eliminate all inferior and mixed va- 
rieties and to raise one standard sort 
which will command a ready sale at a 
high price. 

195 



DRY-FARMING 



THE COLUMBIA BASIN UPLANDS 

During the past few years there has 
been a rapid development in dry-farming 
in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington or in 
other words on the wheat lands of the 
Columbia Basin. This region is almost 
entirely surrounded by mountains. The 
Cascade Mountains lie to the west; the 
Bitter Root and Coeur d'Alene Moun- 
tains to the east; the Okanogan High- 
lands to the north; and the Blue 
Mountains to the southeast. The eleva- 
tion varies from a few hundred feet along 
the Columbia to as much as 3000 feet in 
the eastern portion of this region; while 
the average annual rainfall varies from 
6 to 24 inches. Near the Columbia 
River, where the rainfall is lighter, the 
dry season extends from March until 
October. Near the Blue and Bitter Root 

196 




ROTATION PLOTS AT THE EDGELEY EXPERIMENT STATION, NORTH DAKOTA 




ROTATION PLOTS AT THE EDGELEY EXPERIMENT STATION, NORTH DAKOTA 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

Mountains the dry season is confined en- 
tirely to the summer months, while the 
rainfall is fairly well distributed through- 
out the remaining part of the year. 

There are two distinct agricultural 
sections in the Columbia Basin. The one 
consists of the alluvial valleys along the 
streams where irrigation is practised ; the 
other, the upland prairies — vast undulat- 
ing treeless hills — where crops are raised 
by means of dry-farming. 

While the central part of the Colum- 
bia Basin region is exceedingly dry the 
eastern portion receives the heaviest an- 
nual rainfall. It was natural therefore 
that the early settlers some thirty-five 
years ago should take up homesteads 
within the area of the heaviest rainfall 
that lies along the foothills of the Blue 
and Bitter Root Mountains. The re- 
mainder of the region was considered 
only of value for grazing purposes. But 

199 



DRY-FARMING 

the later colonists have pushed cultiva- 
tion into the dry central region and are 
producing crops without the aid of ir- 
rigation. From the earliest settlements 
cereal crops have been grown almost 
exclusively in this region. True, alfalfa, 
timothy, corn, potatoes, and fruit are 
now produced in many parts of the coun- 
try. Yet they all sink into insignificance 
in comparison with the grains — more 
especially wheat. 

Tillage. 

In the Columbia Basin, where the 
rainfall is light, wheat is grown every 
other year alternating with the summer 
fallow; where the rainfall is ample crops 
are grown every year. Three reasons are 
usually given in support of summer-fal- 
lowing in this region: (a) To conserve 
moisture. A large amount of wheat 
being grown with an annual rainfall of 

200 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

from 8 to 10 inches. So the rainfall of 
one season is conserved for the use of the 
next year's crop. (b) To eradicate 
weeds. The yield of all grain crops is 
greatly diminished when the land be- 
comes foul with weeds, while the loss of 
both moisture and plant-food is very 
great, (c) To renew the fertility of the 
soil. 

The corrugated roller and subsurface 
packer have been introduced into this 
region. Farmers in eastern Oregon 
who use the roller state that their seed 
germinates much better and that the 
yield is several bushels more per acre 
when they use the roller just after drill- 
ing in the grain. It also enables them to 
cut the grain much more easily and 
cheaply because the ground is firmer at 
harvest time. If neither the corrugated 
roller nor the subsurface packer is avail- 
able the disc harrow is used instead. It 

203 



DRY-FARMING 

is set perfectly straight and weighted to 
make it cut deeply. Used in this way it 
does very effective work in settling and 
packing the bottom of the furrow-slice. 

Speaking of the Columbia Basin 
region Hunter remarks: "There is con- 
siderable fall plowing done for spring 
crops. It is generally conceded that bet- 
ter yields are secured from fall plowing 
than from spring plowing, provided the 
land is reasonably clean. There are sev- 
eral reasons for this. Soil left rough and 
porous as it comes from the plow holds 
the snow better and rain much better 
than land that is unplowed. By seeding- 
time in the spring the winter rains have 
settled the soil sufficiently to form a good, 
firm seed-bed. In other words, the win- 
ter rains put the bottom of the furrow- 
slice in practically the same condition 
as does the subsurface packer or the cor- 
rugated roller. When in this condition 

204 



DRY-FARMING ZONES 

there is a very much better capillary 
movement of the moisture than is usually 
secured from spring plowing. Again, 
by plowing in the autumn the stubble 
and other trash on the surface of the 
ground are covered up and given a better 
chance to decay." 

Varieties. 

A great many different varieties of 
wheat are grown in the Columbia Basin. 
So many different sorts with their va- 
riable milling qualities thrown upon the 
market make a very unsatisfactory state 
of affairs. Could this list be reduced to 
two, four, or even six of the best varieties, 
it would be much better. Such varieties 
would then become standardized and the 
miller would know what he was buying 
and the producer what he was selling. 
In selecting the most profitable wheat to 
grow it is not always possible to satisfy 

205 



DRY-FARMING 

both the farmer and the miller. A wheat 
of poor milling quality may be a heavy 
yielder. But undoubtedly the farmers as 
a whole will secure better results by con- 
fining themselves to a few varieties. The 
following are the best known varieties: * 
Little Club, Red Chaff, Blue-stem, Early 
Wilbur, Forty-fold and Turkey Red. 



206 



CHAPTER VIII 

DRY-LAND CROPS 

AS we have already seen, the region of 
AJL the United States which is destined 
to be reclaimed mainly by the application 
of the principles of dry-farming com- 
prises the western half of the Dakotas, 
Nebraska, Kansas, the Panhandle of 
Texas, and westward to the Pacific Coast 
range; in other words the Great Plains 
region, the Intermountain West, and 
vast tracts of country in the States of 
California, Oregon and Washington. 
Now the annual rainfall of this dry- 
farming zone varies from four to twenty- 
five inches per annum; and as might be 
expected wide differences also occur in 

207 



DRY-FARMING 

the altitude, the climate and the soil of 
this enormous area. It is therefore, im- 
possible to say off-hand what sort of crop 
should be grown or what methods of 
farm management should be employed. 
Bearing this in mind, we can now dis- 
cuss the various crops which have given, 
or are likely to give, the best results from 
a dry-farming standpoint. 

At the outset it may be said that to 
raise one crop 1 year after year on the 
same land is seldom a profitable, and 
never a safe proceeding, and the dry- 
farmer must always try, as far as is prac- 
ticable, to maintain a rational system of 
rotation in order to preserve the fertility 
of his soil and at the same time to keep 
his fields free from insect and fungous 
pests. 

1 The exceptional fertility of some dry lands after many 
years of continuous cropping to the same grain should not 
lead farmers to adopt this practice without very good rea- 
sons. 

208 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

Chief Crops. 

In dry-farming the chief crops are the 
cereals, mostly wheat, oats, barley, corn 
(maize), rye, emmer, spelt, the grain 
sorghums and millets ; but forage plants, 
such as lucerne, or alfalfa, clover, field 
peas and other legumes must be grown to 
feed the live-stock of the farm while 
hardy drought-resistant trees should be 
planted for shelter and shade and to 
make the homestead more attractive. 

But of all these crops wheat is by far 
the most important, and the reason is not 
far to seek. Wheat is the most widely 
used grain, and is always in demand. It 
is also worthy of note that the price of 
wheat is steadily rising, and as this cereal 
is generally of a finer quality when raised 
on dry lands than when it is grown under 
irrigation, it will probably long remain 
the principal crop in dry-land farming. 

211 



DRY-FARMING 

The Great Wheat Groups. 

According to Jar dine several hundred 
varieties of wheat, more or less distinct, 
are grown in the dry-farming region of 
the United States. The great bulk of 
these varieties, however, fall into four 
groups : 

i. The Hard Spring Wheats: (a) 
Common Varieties. (b) Durum Va- 
rieties. 

ii. The Hard Winter Wheats. 

in. The Semi-Soft White or Inter- 
mountain Wheats. 

iv. The Soft- White or Pacific Coast 
Wheats. 

Broadly speaking each group is grown 
in a particular belt or zone. These 
wheat zones, of course, are not sharply 
defined; still certain types predominate 
in each. 

212 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

Spring Wheat Zone. 

The Hard Spring Wheat Zone takes in 
North and South Dakota and a portion 
of northwestern Nebraska. Of the com- 
mon varieties the two best known are 
Blue-stem and Red Fife. The famous 
wheats known as "No. 1 Hard" and 
"No. 1 Northern" which usually com- 
mand the highest price on the markets of 
the world have been developed from 
these two varieties. The growing of 
winter wheat is not possible in this zone 
owing to the long severe winters, light 
rains in the fall, and severe freezing and 
thawing in the early spring. But this 
section may also be spoken of as the 
home of the durum wheats in America; 
and as they seem destined to become the 
leading spring varieties throughout the 
whole semi-arid West, a short account 
of their origin may not be out of place. 

213 



DRY-FARMING 

The Durum Wheats. 1 

For more than forty years there have 
been occasional shipments into the 
United States of the hard, glossy 
wheats of the so-called durum type, 
chiefly from Russia, but also from Al- 
geria and Chile. But it is only during 
the past nine years that public attention 
has been specially directed to them, and 
this has been due mainly to the publica- 
tions and efforts of the National Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. In the year 1900 
Mr. M. A. Carleton, United States 
Cerealist, was sent on a mission to Rus- 
sia. He traveled through the Durum 
Wheat Zone and secured a large number 
of varieties which were distributed to the 
farmers and Experiment Stations in the 
Great Plains region where the climate 
and soil conditions are very like those 

1 Also termed macaroni wheats since they are used in 
the manufacture of macaroni. The term durum comes 
from the Latin word meaning hard. 

214 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

found in Russia and in Algeria, where 
the macaroni wheats are grown. In 1901 
Mr. Carleton wrote on page 16 of his 
bulletin on Macaroni wheats: "The 
normal yearly rainfall of the Great 
Plains at the one-hundredth meridian, 
where wheat-growing is at present prac- 
tically non-existent on account of lack of 
drought-resistant varieties, is nearly 
three inches greater than that for the 
entire semi-arid Volga region, which is 
one of the principal wheat regions of 
Russia, and which produces the finest 
macaroni wheat in the world." 

At first these grains were received with 
but little favor, in spite of the fact that 
they gave excellent yields and showed re- 
markable rust-resistant and drought-en- 
during qualities. But the macaroni 
factories of America were then using the 
ordinary bread wheats, and neither the 

217 



DRY-FARMING 

mills nor the elevators would accept the 
durum varieties. Happily this prejudice 
has entirely died down and it is probable 
that within the next few years these types 
will be used exclusively in the manu- 
facture of macaroni. In blending with 
the softer varieties and as a source of 
pemolina or "macaroni flour" durum 
wheats are now acknowledged to be un- 
rivaled. But for the dry-farmer the 
drought-resisting quality of the durum 
wheat is the most important point; and 
in the semi-arid lands of Texas, Mon- 
tana, Utah, and California, they have sur- 
passed all the spring varieties and are 
easily preeminent in this respect. Their 
rust-resistance is also noteworthy. This 
was first shown in a striking manner dur- 
ing the season of 1900 when the rust 
epidemic did so much damage to the 
common varieties. For that reason in 
some parts of Minnesota, farmers are 

218 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

now growing durum wheats in place of 
Fife and Blue-stem. But the excessive 
humidity of the atmosphere makes this 
section of the country wholly unsuited to 
their growth. In short, durum wheats 
are the best spring wheats to be grown 
where the summers are hot and dry; but 
they do not give satisfactory yields in 
humid regions. Durum wheats first be- 
came prominent in the commercial world 
of the United States in the year 1903 
when 6,000,000 bushels were produced; 
the annual harvest has steadily risen until 
today the total crop is close on 100,000,- 
000 bushels. 

Winter (Crimean) Wheat Zone. 

The zone in which the hard winter or 
Crimean wheats are grown includes the 
State of Kansas, southern and central 
Nebraska and Oklahoma, the Panhandle 
of Texas, Montana, Colorado, and Al- 

219 



DRY-FARMING 

berta in Canada— the area of maximum 
production being in central Kansas, 70,- 
000,000 bushels per annum. These 
wheats originated in Russia and take 
their name from the peninsula of Crimea, 
where they have long been grown. They 
were first introduced into the United 
States by the Mennonite colonists who 
came from Russia and brought some 
seed with them. 

The typical varieties of this group are 
the Turkey— sometimes called Turkey 
Red— the Kharkof, and the Crimean. 
They are usually termed "hard red win- 
ter wheats." The Kharkof is most valued 
and has proved very hardy. The wheats 
of this group are all bearded, and have 
white chaff and hard, red berries. They 
do not grow tall, but are very heavy 
yielders. Although in great demand as 
milling wheats they are not thought equal 
to the No. 1 Hard and No. 1 Northern 

220 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

grades of the Fife and Bluestem of the 
Dakotas. 

Intermountain Wheat Zone. 

Passing westward from the Hard Win- 
ter Wheat-belt we come to the Inter- 
mountain or Great Basin Wheat Zone. 
The wheat of this region may be con- 
sidered as intermediate between that of 
the Great Plains and that of the Pacific 
Coast. The wheat of this belt is much 
mixed with, however, a tendency to the 
production of a white soft berry re- 
sembling the grain of the Pacific Coast. 
Hence, the term semi-soft white wheat. 1 

It cannot be said, as in speaking of the 
previous zones, that any particular va- 
riety is dominant in the Intermountain 
region, although the winter sorts are 
chiefly grown. This is due to the fact 

1 It is of interest to know that the finest and cleanest 
seed is now grown in Alberta, being originally obtained 
from Kansas. 

223 



DRY-FARMING 

that the locality in question has up till 
now been of little or no account in the 
world's wheat markets. Nevertheless, the 
rapid development of dry-farming in this 
section, and the enormous areas which 
are eminently suited to wheat-growing, 
must ultimately reduce the number of va- 
rieties in favor of one uniform dominant 
type. As Jardine wisely remarks: 
"Fruit-growers recognize this principle 
of uniformity and profit by it. This 
point has also been forcibly illustrated by 
the durum wheats in this country. When 
the durum wheat was produced only 
locally and in small quantities, it had ab- 
solutely no market, but just as soon as 
the Dakotas began to make a specialty 
of it, the sale became easier and a market 
was soon firmly established." In the 
opinion of the same authority the coming 
wheats for the Intermountain area will 
be the Crimean group for winter wheat 

224 



DRY-LAND CROPS 



and the durums for spring. The latter 
are the only varieties which have proved 
capable of withstanding the dry, hot 
summers of this region. 



The Pacific Wheat Zone. 

This zone comprises the San Joaquin 
and Sacramento Valley in California, 
and the Columbia Basin region of 
Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The 
wheats of this belt are the extreme oppo- 
site of those of the Kansas region. In 
other words, they are very soft and white, 
and very low in gluten — the most valu- 
able constituent of the wheat berry— 
while the Kansas grains are hard, red, 
and rich in gluten and hence more de- 
sirable. The wheats of the Pacific belt 
are not readily salable in the Minneapolis 
and Chicago markets; however, they sell 
freely on the Pacific Coast, in western 

225 



DRY-FARMING 

Europe and the Orient. The main va- 
rieties are Defiance, Little Club, White 
Australian, and Sonora in California; 
Red Chaff and Foise in Oregon ; Palouse, 
Red Russian, and also Blue-stem, in 
Washington and Idaho. So far all at- 
tempts to maintain high gluten content 
in wheats brought to the Pacific Coast 
region have failed. As soon as the hard 
varieties have become acclimated in this 
region they are found to be starchy and 
soft and so closely resemble the Pacific 
Coast types in chemical composition. 
This is particularly true of the wheat 
sections of California. It is thus cus- 
tomary for the millers of California to 
import hard sorts so as to strengthen 
their own flour. As Jardine points out 
this is another possible use for durum 
wheats raised farther east. Such a 
course would increase the market for the 
durums and at the same time prove of 

226 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

vast service to the farmers and millers of 
the Pacific Coast. 

Oats, 

There are a number of spring varieties 
of oats that withstand drought to a 
marked degree. Among the most prom- 
ising are the following: Sixty-Day, 
Kherson, Burt, and Swedish Select. 
These varieties are usually quick grow- 
ers; they are thus able to use to best 
advantage the early spring moisture and 
by maturing soon escape the severe 
droughts which may occur later in the 
season. A winter variety, known as the 
Boswell Winter Oats has given excellent 
results in Utah and is being tested in the 
Great Plains area. 

Barley, 

The most drought-resistant varieties 
of spring barleys belong to the beardless 

227 



DRY-FARMING 

and hull-less types, and have proved ex- 
cellent varieties to grow on dry lands. 
They are highly valued for stock feed, 
and being spring crops are well adapted 
to a rotation in which they can follow 
winter wheat. The Tennessee Winter 
Barley has given good results in Ne- 
braska and Kansas and is rapidly displac- 
ing the spring types in the latter State. 

Spelt and Emmer. 

Spelt and emmer are less generally 
known than the other grains as they have 
only recently been introduced from 
Russia. There is still some confusion 
regarding spelt and emmer. They are 
both generally called spelt. The two are 
quite distinct, however, but they are alike 
in the fact that the chaff adheres closely 
to the berry after thrashing. Botani- 
cally, spelt and emmer are closely related 
to wheat, but economically they might 

228 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

better be classed with oats and barley 
since they are cultivated in the United 
States for stock food only. As a mix- 
ture with other grains, such as corn, oats, 
and barley, they are highly prized. 

Sorghum, 

Sorghum is supposed to have origi- 
nated in equatorial Africa. At the 
present time it is more or less extensively 
cultivated in all tropical and temperate 
regions of the globe, and forms an im- 
portant part of the food supply of the 
human race as well as of domestic ani- 
mals. It is not too much to say that the 
sorghums surpass all other crops in with- 
standing long periods of drought and 
hot winds. This fact alone has done 
much to make them the leading crops in 
the drier regions of the United States. 
Sorghum is far superior to corn (maize) 
in this respect and will remain fresh and 

229 



DRY-FARMING 

green through periods of drought that 
would entirely destroy a corn-field. 
Sorghum does excellently on the "red- 
land" formations of Oklahoma and 
northwestern Texas. It has also been 
grown with some success on the alkali 
soils of California New Mexico, and 
Arizona. 

Effect on the Land. 

It is commonly said that Sorghum is 
"hard on the land" and in a sense this is 
true. But any crop which produces a 
large amount of forage or grain tends to 
exhaust the soil. Sorghum often affords 
three cuttings a year in the Gulf States 
and two in the semi-arid regions. It is 
not surprising, then, that it is hard on the 
land. On rich soils, however, good crops 
have been secured for many successive 
years without any marked decrease in 
soil fertility. Ball writes on this subject 

230 




OATS GROWN CONTINUOUSLY, THIRD CROP, YIELD 8 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 
EORSYTH EXPERIMENT STATION, MONTANA 

Showing- evil effect of constant cropping without summer fallowing or rotation 




OATS AETER A MOISTURE-SAVING FALLOW, YIELD -.7 BUSHELS PER ACRE, 
FORSYTH DRY-FARM, MONTANA 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

as follows: "It is probable that the ob- 
served bad effect on land is due more to 
the physical condition in which the soil 
is left than to an actual reduction of 
fertility. The large quantity of coarse 
stubble left in the soil, especially where 
the crop is grown rather thinly in drills, 
hinders perfect preparation for the next 
crop. If the land is dry when plowed 
clumps of stubble are likely to become 
centres of great clods, which are broken 
up only with great difficulty. Sorghums 
also continue their growth later in the 
autumn than most other crops, and thus 
continue to remove moisture from the 
soil until a late date. If the land is then 
sown to a winter crop there is not suffi- 
cient moisture remaining to give it a 
successful start, and the failure is then 
laid to the impoverishment of the soil by 
the preceding sorghum crop. This com- 
plaint has been more frequently made 

233 



DRY-FARMING 

against Kaffir corn than against the sac- 
charine sorghums." 

Classification of Sorghums. 

There are a great many varieties of 
Sorghums. They hybridize or cross very 
readily and the number of different sorts 
seem to be constantly increasing. All 
forms, however, grown in the United 
States may be separated into four classes 
or groups : ( 1 ) Broom Corns. ( 2 ) Sor- 
gos, Saccharine or Sweet Sorghums. 
(3) Kaffir corns. (4) Durras. 

Of these the broom corns are grown 
only for their brush, the sorgos for for- 
age and syrup, the Kaffir corns for grain 
and forage, and the durras almost ex- 
clusively for grain. 

Broom Corns. 

The broom corns have straight stems 
which do not branch from the upper 

234 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

nodes, or joints, and very long, straight, 
loose, open seed-heads, usually light-col- 
ored, which are used in the making of 
brooms and brushes. The stalk is dry and 
pithy, lacking the sweet juice of the sac- 
charine sorghums to which broom corn is 
most closely related. 

Saccharine Sorghums. 

The sweet sorghums are popularly 
known by reason of their sweet sap or 
juice from which syrup and sugar are 
made. In general, they are of tall and 
leafy growth, branching only sparingly 
at the upper nodes, or joints, and not 
stooling much at the base. The seed-head 
or panicle varies from the close, compact 
"club" head of the Sumac sorghum to 
the loose and often widely spreading 
head of the Amber variety. The seeds 
are red in the Sumac and reddish-yellow 
in the Orange and Amber sorghums, 

235 



DRY-FARMING 

and usually protrude a little from be- 
tween the glumes or chaff. 

Non-Saccharine Sorghums. 

Non-saccharine sorghums have usually 
a stouter stalk, with a fair amount of 
juice, which is, however, less abundant 
and less sugary than in the sweet 
sorghums. On account of the position 
of their heads and the shape of their seeds 
they are readily separated into two great 
classes namely (a) The Kaffir Corns and 
(b) The Durras (Dhomas). 

The Kaffir group includes Red Kaffir, 
White Kaffir, Black-hulled White Kaffir, 
and White Milo or Large African Mil- 
let. Kaffir corns are all characterized by 
erect, rather long and compact, cylin- 
drical heads full of egg-shaped (with the 
large end outermost) seeds which are 
either white or red as indicated by the 
name. White Milo Kaffir corn may be 

236 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

distinguished from Black-hulled White 
Kaffir corn by its much better growth, 
longer internodes (with space between 
the joints of the stem), and larger and 
lighter colored, yellowish leaves. 

The durra group comprises Milo, 
white durra ("Jerusalem Corn," "Rice 
Corn, ,, "White Egyptian Corn ,, ) and 
brown durra ("Brown Egyptian 
Corn"). The durras are characterized 
by dry and rather pithy stems and large, 
oval or egg-shaped, mostly pendent 
("goose-hecked") heads. The number 
of leaves on each stalk is only 8 to 10 on 
the average. This scanty foliage and the 
pithy stem make them (the durras) of 
little value for forage in comparison with 
the Kaffirs and Sorgus. However, the 
seeds of the durras are larger than the 
latter. The best known of this group is 
milo, first known as "Yellow Millo 
Maize." The adjective "yellow" was 

237 



DRY-FARMING 

applied because of the yellowish color of 
the seeds and also because a white-seeded 
sorghum, related to Kaffir corn, was then 
being sold as "White Millo Maize." It 
is now commonly known as Dwarf Milo, 
Yellow Milo and Milo "Maize," but the 
last name should not be used as it is apt 
to confuse it with corn. The simple term 
milo is the best. 

Milo was first introduced into the 
country from Africa about 1880. In the 
Panhandle of Texas, Oklahoma, and 
Kansas it is widely grown on account of 
its drought resistance and comparative 
earliness. Dwarf milo is merely ordinary 
milo grown in the dry plains where, 
owing to lack of moisture, it becomes low 
in stature. The heads of the common 
varieties of milo are mostly pendent and 
consequently hard to harvest; but the 
improved or selected types developed by 
the Department of Agriculture have 

238 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

erect heads and consequently may be har- 
vested with grain-headers. The im- 
proved milo crop is adapted to rapid and 
economical handling on a large scale by 
machinery. Milo needs a soil very much 
like that required for corn. Four pounds 
of seed to the acre have given the best 
results in the Texas Panhandle, and the 
yield varies from 25 to 55 bushels per 
acre. Milo is mainly used as a feeding 
grain on the dry- farms of the West; but 
except for poultry the grain should be 
cracked or ground before feeding. Milo 
is now widely grown in western Texas, 
New Mexico, California, Oklahoma, and 
Kansas, and is proving of great value as 
a dry-land grain crop. It seems well 
worthy of trial in the whole Great Basin 
region. Lastly, the group of Kowliangs 
or Chinese grain sorghums are the most 
promising early strains yet discovered. 
The best variety matured in the Pan- 

239 



DRY-FARMING 

handle of Texas in eighty-five days. This 
is at an elevation of from 3000 to 4000 
feet with an average rainfall of 22 
inches. 

Rye. 

Rye, well known as a good dry-farm- 
ing crop, can nearly always be relied 
upon to produce a crop under conditions 
of drought too severe for wheat or other 
grain. There are both spring and win- 
ter varieties. The spring types are most 
valuable as green manuring crops, and 
also for summer forage and pasturage. 
Winter varieties are most profitable for 
the production of grain and forage. The 
value of rye as forage is almost equal to 
that of timothy if cut at the proper time. 
Since rye produces a heavy foliage even 
under very dry conditions, it is specially 
esteemed as a dry-farm forage crop. Its 
grain, too, is valuable as a stock food. 

240 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

Emmer. 

Emmer, a species of wheat, has recently- 
attracted much notice as a valuable grain 
for semi- arid regions. It is largely grown 
in Russia and Germany and probably 
was first introduced into the United 
States by the German and Russian colo- 
nists who settled in the Northwest. In 
Russia it is mainly grown in the Upper 
Volga region where the annual rainfall is 
about 16 inches. The name "emmer" is a 
German word, and should be used instead 
of "spelt," by which it is often erroneously 
called. The heads of emmer are almost 
always bearded; while the spikelets are 
usually two-grained. The emmer may 
be distinguished from spelt as follows: 
the spikelets of spelt are far apart, stand 
out from the stem, and form a very loose 
head; while the spikelets of emmer lie 
close together and form a compact head. 
Further, the grain of emmer is harder 

241 



DRY-FARMING 

and redder than that of spelt. Emmer 
is a much harder and quicker grow- 
ing plant than spelt. It can withstand 
severe drought, and, to a large degree, 
leaf -rust and smut. Emmer will produce 
a fair crop under almost any condition of 
soil and climate, but thrives best in a dry 
prairie region, with short hot summers, 
where it gives excellent yields. It will 
grow on poor lands, in stony ground, in 
forest regions, and on the prairie. A dry 
hot climate seems to produce in emmer a 
hard, bright, clean grain. In Russia a 
large amount of this grain is used for 
human food, such as in porridge and 
cakes. The high protein content would 
indicate that it should make very nutri- 
tious bread. Moreover, emmer has 
proved of great value for improving other 
varieties of wheat. By crossing it with 
the common^varieties, the following char- 
acters are secured: (1) Better resistance 

242 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

to fungous attacks. (2) Greater 
drought resistance. (3) Increase in 
productiveness. (4) Non-shattering. 
(5) Stiffness of straw. (6) Increase 
of gluten content. Crosses with emmer 
usually show a great increase in general 
vigor and hardiness. 

Corn. 

It is rather remarkable that more corn 
is not grown in the semi-arid zone. It is 
incorrect to say as a recent writer does 
that "The West is not a corn country," 
when we recall the splendid crops raised 
in Kansas. 

Corn, like sorghum, is a drought-re- 
sistant crop and if planted in deep, well 
tilled land will successfully withstand a 
long period of drought. / Corn may be 
planted in drills or sown in squares with 
a check-row planter. In Kansas it is 
usually planted with a lister. Cultiva- 

243 



DRY-FARMING 

tion should begin a day or two after the 
crop is planted and it is often harrowed 
until the plants are six to eight inches 
high in order to keep the soil from get- 
ting hard and crusted. Buffum says: 
"Under dry-farming, with proper tools, 
one man can plant and tend 160 acres of 
corn, or of sorghum. He must have 
plenty of horses, gang-listers, large har- 
rows and gang-weeders." It is impos- 
sible to recommend any one variety of 
corn that would prove adapted to the 
whole of the West. But the dry-farmer 
should try to obtain a variety which is 
likely to suit his particular conditions 
and grow his own seed-corn. By careful 
selection for two or three years he can 
easily increase his annual yield from 
three to five bushels. 

The best corn-breeding work in the 
United States has been done by the Illi- 
nois Experiment Station ; and the farmer 

244 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

might well obtain one or other of the 
standard varieties recommended by that 
station, or such superior corns as Min- 
nesota No. 13 and Wisconsin No. 7, to be 
obtained from the experiment stations of 
these States. But the important thing to 
remember is, as far as possible, to grow 
only one or two varieties and to plant 
them far enough apart to avoid mixing 
or cross-fertilization. 

It is not hard to foretell that corn is 
destined to become one of the most im- 
portant dry-farm crops in the semi-arid 
section of the United States, because of 
its great value as a fodder and as a grain 
crop. 

Alfalfa (Lucern). 

Alfalfa 1 is a very valuable crop for the 
dry-farmer and it is now being grown in 

1 Alfalfa, the Arabic name by which this plant was 
known in Spain and carried thence to Mexico, California 
and the western United States. It would be well, how- 

247 



DRY-FARMING 

every State in the West. It has given 
excellent yields on the dry lands of 
Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas and 
central Nebraska. Owing to its deep- 
going tap-root alfalfa will stand a long 
siege of drought ; and the writer has seen 
splendid fields of lucern in Utah with a 
rainfall of about 15 inches per annum. 
Alfalfa grows best in a deep, well- 
drained loamy soil. It does not thrive in 
a cold, wet land ; nor in loose, sandy soil. 
Like all other legumes, lucern has the 
power of absorbing nitrogen from the 
air. It thus adds fertility to the soil and 
when plowed under it is valuable as a 
fertilizer for worn-out lands. It is not, 
however, so well suited for short rotations 
as clover, but may be used to great ad- 
vantage in a five or ten year rotation with 
wheat, corn, potatoes or sugar beets. 

ever, if this name were given up in favor of the synonym 
lucern, now universally used in Utah, England, Europe, 
and South Africa. 

248 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

Lucern should never be grown in or- 
chards as it is apt to withdraw too much 
moisture from the trees. The cause of 
the failure of alfalfa is very often due to 
careless preparation of the soil. New 
land should be cultivated for one year at 
least, and better for two or three, before 
it is seeded. This crop is easy to grow 
and to keep clean, provided it is sown in 
a mellow, weedless seed-bed, and no crop 
responds more generously to good treat- 
ment. The effect of frequent tillage is 
really amazing. 

Recently, a new industry has arisen in 
the semi-arid regions, namely, the grow- 
ing of alfalfa for seed. It is found that 
a better quality of seed can be raised on 
dry lands than under irrigation or in the 
humid districts of the East. For if too 
much water is given to the crop during 
the time of flowering and seed forming, 
the strength of the plant goes to foliage 
13 249 



DRY-FARMING 

rather than to seed production. This 
opens up a new and practically limitless 
field of work for the dry-farmer. Al- 
falfa, for seed, should not be sown in 
quite the same manner as for an ordinary 
hay crop. To secure strong thrifty 
plants, prevent crowding, and permit 
cultivation the seed should be sown very 
thinly in rows from two and one half to 
three and one half feet apart and the 
young plants can be thinned out with a 
hoe, as for sugar beets, or harrowed cross- 
wise to cut out a portion of the crop. 
When a small amount of seed, three to 
six pounds per acre, is used, it may be 
mixed with ashes to help to spread it 
evenly. The yield of seed should be from 
five to seven bushels per acre, but on good 
soils as high as ten to twelve bushels may 
be expected. Lucern weighs 60 lbs. to 
the bushel. In practice the decision as to 
whether the crop should be used for hay 

250 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

or saved for seed may depend on the 
weather. If the season is wet, a hay crop 
is generally harvested; if dry, the field is 
allowed to go to seed. The best time to 
cut a lucern crop for seed is when about 
half the pods have turned brown. For 
hay lucern should be cut just as it is be- 
ginning to bloom. After flowering it 
loses its feeding-value. If the field is 
fairly uniform, the proper stage for cut- 
ting is when about one tenth of the plants 
are beginning to flower. Alfalfa is a 
highly nutritious and palatable fodder 
for all classes of farm animals. All stock 
eat it greedily either in the green f orm or 
as hay. For the best results, however, it 
should be combined with some grain, such 
as corn, barley or oats. 

Potatoes. 

Potatoes are among the most valuable 
of dry-farm crops and are now being 

251 



DRY-FARMING 

grown on an extensive scale in the semi- 
arid regions. It is a well known fact that 
potatoes raised under irrigation tend to 
deteriorate, consequently there is a large 
and growing demand for dry-land seed. 
In a good, deep sandy loam this crop 
will thrive with comparatively little 
moisture. The following varieties are 
chiefly grown in the West: Ohio, Mam- 
moth Pearl, Rural New Yorker and 
Burbank. 

It is important that a community of 
settlers who are just starting to farm 
should plant only one or two varieties in 
order to supply their market with a uni- 
form product. Potato land should be 
plowed deep. Usually four horses are 
put on a f ourteen-inch plow and the fur- 
row turned from eight to ten inches deep. 
If it is sod, the plowing is generally done 
to a depth of five or six inches the first 
year, but the ground should be disked 

252 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

before plowing, in order to form a fine 
seed-bed on turning over. 

Potatoes on dry lands should receive 
deep and thorough cultivation. When 
the plants are four or five inches high, 
cultivate deep and near the rows. This 
may be done each week or ten days, run- 
ning the cultivator shovels farther from 
the plants as they grow larger, and 
throwing the soil toward the rows. If 
potatoes are to be grown on a large scale, 
a good potato planter is necessary. The 
seed should be planted from four to six 
inches deep in rows three to three and 
one half inches apart and twelve to 
eighteen inches in the row. The culti- 
vator and harrow should be used to level 
the soil and form a moisture-saving 
mulch. Large potatoes are not desirable 
and the farmer should strive to raise a 
medium-tuber, uniform in size, shape and 

255 



DRY-FARMING 

color, free from scab or crack in order to 
secure the top market prices. 

Canadian Field Peas. 1 

This crop has given good results in 
Montana and elsewhere and should be 
tried in every dry-farm. Field peas have 
a two-fold value. The grain and straw 
furnish valuable food for all classes of 
farm animals ; and the crop is one of the 
best soil improvers, because of its ability 
to take free nitrogen from the air and 
add it to the soil. 

The best success in the growing of field 
peas has been gained on clay loam soils 
which contained some humus and some 
lime. Very light, sandy soils do not 
give enough vine growth; while very 

1 This does not afford an accurate description, since 
many varieties of this particular strain exist. During the 
past few years the Montana Experiment Station has grown 
nineteen different varieties of field peas, all possessing dis- 
tinctive characters, and yet all belonging to the general 
class known as "Canadian Field Peas." 

256 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

rich, black soils produce too much leaf at 
the expense of the pod. Wet lands are 
wholly unsuited to the growth of peas. 

Peas may be planted either on spring- 
or fall-plowed land. Usually, fall plow- 
ing gives the best results. The soil should 
be fine and mellow at the time of seeding. 
Canadian Field Peas should be one of 
the first farm crops sown in the spring. 
It is customary to sow with a drill at the 
rate of from 60 to 100 pounds of seed 
per acre. 

Peas should be cut when the grain is 
hard in the pods and before the pods 
have dried sufficiently to crack open. 
Until a few years ago peas had to be cut 
with the scythe, making the crop hard 
and dear to handle. But the introduction 
of the pea harvester attachment to the 
ordinary mower has made it possible to 
handle the crop more cheaply and with 
much greater ease. Three men and one 

257 



DRY-FARMING 

team of horses with an ordinary mower 
attachment will cut ten acres of peas in. 
a day. 

Leguminous Crops. 

Those crops which belong to the pea 
or pod-forming family are of special 
value to the dry-farmer, for, in the first 
place, they may be grown as forage 
plants or, secondly, utilized for green 
manuring. Now the plowing under of 
green crops is one of the oldest methods 
of maintaining the fertility of the soil. 
But it was only within the last twenty- 
five years that the great value of the 
legume was made clear. Most farmers 
are aware that the roots of leguminous 
plants possess small warts, usually 
termed nodules or tubercles, by means of 
which they can make use of the free 
nitrogen of the air. Further, these 
nodules are caused by certain germs 

258 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

which, while feeding on the legume, pro- 
vide it with nitrogen drawn from the air. 
These nitrifying bacteria vary in size 
and shape according to the plant. Thus, 
while in red clover, they are usually small 
and round, on the bean they may reach 
the size of a pigeon's egg. Again, every 
legume has its own special strain of bac- 
teria. For example, the germ on the 
lucern root is different from that on the 
clover plant and that on the cow pea is 
distinct from that of the soy bean. Land 
may be inoculated with the legume or- 
ganisms by scattering soil from a field 
where the crop has been recently grown, 
or by using artificial cultures of the 
proper bacteria. According to Piper, 
there are in the United States fifteen 
leguminous field crops which are grown 
more or less extensively for feeding pur- 
poses or for green manuring. In the 
approximate order of their importance 

259 



DRY-FARMING 

they are as follows : Red Clover, Lucern, 
Cow Peas, Alsike Clover, Crimson 
Clover, White Clover, Canada Peas, Soy 
Beans, Peanuts, Vetch, Velvet Beans, 
Japan Clover and Bur Clover. A few 
more are cultivated to a less extent, as 
Sweet Clover, Beggarweed, Grass Peas, 
Penugreek and Horse Beans. Many 
others have been tested in an experi- 
mental way, but as yet are not grown as 
crops. From an agricultural point of 
view legumes may be classified into three 
groups : 

1. Summer annuals, including cow 
peas, soy beans, peanuts, beans, velvet 
beans and in the North common vetch 
and Canada peas. 

2. Winter annuals, comprising crim- 
son clover, bur clover, hairy vetch, and in 
the South common vetch and Canada 
peas. 

3. Biennials or perennials, embracing 

260 



DRY-LAND CROPS 

red clover, white clover, alsike clover, 
lucern and sweet clover. 

Each of these crops can be grown 
advantageously only in certain clearly 
defined regions. Moreover, for the par- 
ticular purpose in view it rarely happens 
that a choice of two or more equally 
valuable legumes is offered. Usually one 
is so much superior to any other that 
substitution is practically out of the 
question. In a few cases, however, the 
use of one legume in place of another is 
practicable. Thus, cow peas and soy 
beans are agriculturally much alike and 
are adapted to the same States. In a like 
manner crimson clover, bur clover, and 
the vetches may be used, one in place of 
another, over a large area. In some sec- 
tions of the country the culture of red 
clover is no longer profitable, owing to 
various diseases. Alsike clover has been 
used to some extent as a substitute, but 

261 



DRY-FARMING 

the yield is ordinarily much less. There 
is also an increasing use of lucern in 
place of red clover, but with lucern the 
best practice is to keep the fields in crop 
for three years or longer. 



262 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TRACTION-ENGINE IN DRY-FARMING 

THERE can be no doubt that the 
traction-engine is destined to play 
a prominent part in the development of 
dry-farming more especially where large 
areas of virgin prairie require to be 
turned over. At the same time every 
farmer who is thinking of purchasing a 
steam or gasoline traction-engine should 
remember the following points. In the 
first place the steam-engine will never 
wholly do away with the necessity of 
having horses for the performance of 
various minor farm duties. Secondly, 
and most important, the passage of a 
heavy engine over the ground tends to 
hammer the soil to stone-like hardness. 
It is thus apt to become inert and unre- 

263 



DRY-FARMING 

sponsive, and what is still worse the fine 
natural tilth is liable to be injured. Such 
a condition may last for several seasons. 
Take, for example, an old traveled road. 
Plow it up and note how long it will be 
before such land gives a satisfactory- 
crop. In the same way it may be a con- 
siderable time before ground that has 
been packed hard by the weight of a 
traveling engine responds to cultivation. 
Of course where the land is in sod and 
dry the actual damage done is probably 
very slight. Another matter which the 
farmer has to consider in the more remote 
dry regions is the question of water and 
coal. If water has to be hauled over two 
miles, it is doubtful whether one man and 
four horses will be able to keep the en- 
gine supplied. As regards coal, if it has 
to be hauled six or eight miles, it will 
require a man and his team for at least 
three days in the week. 

264 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

Again, the constant traveling over 
rough ground, the jarring of the cogs, 
and the accumulation of dust in the 
gearing makes it hard to keep this sort 
of machinery in proper order. Parts are 
very apt to become loose or worn out and 
the whole outfit may be laid up for sev- 
eral days, pending repairs, at the most 
critical period of the plowing season. 
Another trouble is the difficulty of get- 
ting efficient engineers — men who have 
had some experience in running trac- 
tion-engines for plowing. Stationary 
or locomotive engineers do not seem to 
understand how to work these engines, 
although they are easy enough to 
manipulate. Notwithstanding all these 
disadvantages, the manufacturers are 
constantly striving to improve their 
machines and the popularity of the 
traction-engine is growing rapidly. This 
season a very large percentage of the 

265 



DRY-FARMING 

wheat lands of western North Dakota — 
where coal is cheap and abundant — will 
be turned over by the steam plow. 

Let us take as a typical example a 25- 
horse-power engine operating in North 
Dakota. Such an engine equipped for 
plowing costs about $2000, while the 
plows themselves run from $125 to $600 
depending upon the make. A 25-horse- 
power engine with six 14 -inch plows 
generally averages from 13 to 14 acres 
per day, plowing three to five inches 
deep. The fuel used in this State is lig- 
nite and costs from $2 to $3 per ton in 
the field, according to the distance from 
the mine. This size of engine will use 
about four tons of coal per day. The 
engineer usually receives from $3.50 to 
$4.50 per day, and the other men, of 
whom there are usually three or four, 
from $1.25 to $1.50. The average total 
expense is reckoned at about $20 per 

266 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

day. Most of the work of steam cultiva- 
tion is done by contract; the ordinary 
price charged for breaking up virgin 
land is $3.50 per acre, or $4.35 for plow- 
ing, disking and seeding. Naturally, the 
outlay for repairs depends largely on the 
skill of the engineer, and the care which 
he takes of his engine. In the Northwest 
there are from five to six months in the 
year during which steam cultivation can 
be profitably employed, and the maxi- 
mum amount of work which such an out- 
fit as that just mentioned could do, in a 
favorable season, would be about 1500 
acres. Traction-engines intended for 
steam plowing and thrashing are usually 
built more strongly than the ordinary 
traction-engine, both as regards the 
gearing and the boiler. Steam traction- 
engines for plowing usually have a 
capacity of from 25 to 40 horse-power, 
and new land is generally plowed to a 
14 267 



DRY-FARMING 

depth of from four to five inches, but, of 
course, it is possible to plow to a much 
greater depth if desired. There are but 
few reliable data as to the cost per acre 
for steam cultivation, and the figures 
given by operators vary all the way from 
50 cents to $3 per acre. A safe estimate 
would probably be about $2 per acre. 

Gasoline Traction-Engine. 

The gasoline traction-engine has sev- 
eral distinct advantages over the steam 
traction-engine. In the first place it is 
much cheaper: a gasoline engine costs 
from $1000 to $2000 less than a steam 
engine of the same capacity; and two 
men are sufficient to run it compared 
with the three or four required for a 
steam outfit. Further, statistics show 
that land can be plowed up with this type 
of engine more cheaply than with steam 
power. But the greatest merit of the 

268 




A GASOLENE-TRACTION PLOWING OUTFIT AT WORK ON A 3000-ACRE FARM 

IN MONTANA 




THE BATES GRUBBER FOR CLEARING SAGE-BRUSH 
Pulled with 35 H. P. Engine 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

gasoline engine when compared with the 
steam engine is the quickness with which 
it can be heated in the morning. In fact 
you can start right off at once just as you 
would do with an automobile. A 22 
horse-power gasoline engine uses 35 gal- 
lons of gasoline per day and 40 gallons 
of water. This amount will last for ten 
hours and plow about fifteen acres per 
day on virgin land using 14 disc plows. 

Mr. William M. Jardine, United 
States Agronomist, in charge of dry-land 
cereals, discusses the merits of a typical 
gasoline outfit working in Montana as 
follows : 

"This outfit— 22 horse-power — had 
been running for ten days and had 
averaged during that time a little more 
than 25 acres a day on heavy sod, plow- 
ing to a depth of 4 inches and turning 
it over in good shape. The cost, includ- 
ing labor, was about 80 cents an acre. 

271 



DRY-FARMING 

The two young men operating the en- 
gine were inexperienced hands, and 
yet everything seemed to be moving 
smoothly. They informed me that they 
had thus far met with no serious delays 
on account of breakages. The contract 
price for breaking sod land in Montana 
varies from $4 to $5 per acre. It would 
require 25 horses and 5 men, at a cost of 
not less than $3.50 to $4.50 per acre, to 
do the same amount of work per day that 
these two young men were doing with 
their engine. The gasoline-engine prop- 
osition for plowing and other farming 
operations is entirely feasible where 
farming is done on a large scale, but it 
would not be practicable for the small 
farmer to own and operate an outfit. 
However, a number of small farmers 
could join together in the purchase of an 
engine without involving themselves as 
heavily as by purchasing the horses nec- 

272 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

essary to do the same amount of work. 1 
This method is followed in the West in 
buying thrashing outfits and is found 
thoroughly practicable. If it is possible 
to produce crops at a cost of $2 to $4 less 
per acre by the use of gasoline engines 
on our dry-farms this method should be 
adopted. The saving would be remark- 
able, especially where the average yield of 
wheat per acre probably does not exceed 
15 bushels. Some 20 of these plowing 
outfits have been placed in Montana this 
year. In my judgment the gasoline 
plowing outfit is here to stay and will aid 
materially in the cheap production of 
farm crops on our dry-lands." 

The Double Engine System. 

At the beginning of this chapter the 
writer enumerated the disadvantages of 

1 In the West, 1300- to 1600-pound work horses cost 
from $200 to |300 each. 

273 



DRY-FARMING 

the direct traction method, that is to say, 
where the engine travels over the land 
and drags the plows, harrows, packers, 
and seeders along with it. This may be 
avoided by what is termed the double en- 
gine system, where the engines remain 
stationary, and the tillage implements 
are drawn across the field on a steel 
cable. The advantage of the double en- 
gine system over the direct system may 
be summed up as follows : 

( 1 ) The engines do not travel over the 
fields, but move along the headlands, and 
so the cropping ground is not damaged 
by the heavy weight of the engines. 

(2) The whole effort of the engine 
goes directly into the work of the plow, 
whereas it has been estimated that quite 
three fifths of the power given off by 
the direct traction-engine is required to 
propel itself. 

(3) With the double engine system the 

274 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

land can be tilled much sooner after rain 
than by the direct traction system. 

This system is widely used in Colo- 
rado and California, Australia and 
western Canada. But the finest work 
that has ever been done in dry-farming, 
so far as the writer is aware, is that which 
has been carried on during the last six 
years in South Africa where the condi- 
tions are very similar to those prevailing 
in the Great Plains region. This method 
has given such remarkable results that it 
is worthy of the attention of all dry-far- 
mers who are interested in steam cultiva- 
tion. In the year 1902 a demonstration 
farm was established at Vereeniging, a 
village situated on the borders of the 
Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, 
and placed under the management of 
Mr. W. A. McLaren, M. I. C. E., an 
engineer who has had a life-long experi- 
ence in agricultural operations in relation 

275 



DRY-FARMING 

to steam cultivation in different parts of 
the British Empire. 

The soil of Vereeniging is a fair 
average quality, and varies from a stiff 
clay to a light, sandy loam, and the 
amazing thing is, that in spite of the 
severe drought of the past five years, the 
Vereeniging crops have not only never 
failed, but have shown an increased yield 
every season without the use of manure. 
This result McLaren attributes to deep 
plowing, thorough tillage, and the use 
of moisture-saving fallows. The value 
of those fallow lands was shown in a 
striking way last season when the maize 
or corn harvest ended, on August 1 26th, 
and planting for the new crop started 
the very next day — or about one month 
ahead of the usual time of seeding. The 
results of these operations have clearly 

1 In South Africa the seasons are the reverse of the 
United States. That is to say, Christmas comes in the 
middle of summer, and August in the late winter. 

276 



THE TRACTION-ENGINE 

demonstrated that, under ordinary con- 
ditions, the dry lands of the Transvaal, 
cultivated in a scientific manner, with the 
double engine system of steam tackle, 
in the hands of skilled workmen, will 
successfully produce large crops of maize 
in seasons of the severest drought. 

At Vereeniging the plowing tackle 
consists of two engines with steel cables 
450 yards in length — a five furrow bal- 
ance plow, and a packer weighing 
about two tons. This packer has proved 
a very valuable implement for securing 
a mellow seed-bed. The planting is done 
by means of a combined implement com- 
prising the cultivator, consolidator, 
packer, sower and a harrow; the four 
operations being done simultaneously by 
this machine which cultivates, packs, 
seeds, and harrows sixty acres per day. 
The amount of land that such a steam 
plow turns over is from fifteen to twenty 
14* 277 



DRY-FARMING 

acres per day, or from 2500 to 3500 
acres per annum according to the char- 
acter and condition of the soil. In the 
Transvaal, where the deep stirring of the 
land has been found to be so essential for 
the maximum conservation of soil mois- 
ture, the double engine system has in- 
variably given better results than the 
direct traction system ; and in this colony 
with steam tackle, it is possible to plow 
practically every day in the year— sum- 
mer and winter. 

This is an ideal method of fitting the 
land for a dry-farm crop, but unfortu- 
nately the initial expense of the outfit — 
$22,500 — puts it beyond the reach of the 
ordinary farmer. But a cooperative so- 
ciety of dry-farmers might easily com- 
bine and purchase such tackle. Treated 
with care these engines will give equal 
satisfaction at the end of five, ten, or 
even twenty years of constant service. 

278 



CHAPTER X 

DRY-LAND EXPERIMENTS 

IN the first chapter of this volume the 
work of the State experiment sta- 
tions has been noted and now it may be 
of interest to touch upon the practical 
aid and encouragement rendered to the 
dry-farmer by the Department of Agri- 
culture at Washington. The operations 
and experiments of the Department in 
dry-land agriculture come under the 
Bureau of Plant Industry and comprise 
the following sections: 

i. Office Dry-Land Agriculture, 
ii. Office of Grain Investigations, 
in. Office of Western Agricultural 

Extension. 
iv. Office of Alkali and Drought-Re- 
sistant Plant Breeding. 
279 



DRY-FARMING 

v. Soil Physics Laboratories. 

vi. Soil Bacteriological Laboratories. 

At the present moment the main prob- 
lems in this division lie along the line of 
soil management, cereal investigations, 
plant breeding, soil moisture determina- 
tion, meteorological and bacteriological 
investigations. In passing it may be men- 
tioned that there are 1058 persons in the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, which shows 
the remarkable growth of a single section 
of the Department of Agriculture. 
There is no doubt that the Department 
is doing much to demonstrate the best 
methods of tillage, the necessity of or- 
ganization, and the production of one 
uniform type of grain. 

The work of the Department in dry- 
farming may be said to have begun with 
the appointment of Mr. E. C. Chilcott as 
Agriculturist in charge of Dry-Land In- 
vestigations in July, 1905. Before com- 

280 



DRY-LAND EXPERIMENTS 

ing to Washington Mr. Chilcott was 
Professor of Agriculture and Geology in 
the South Dakota Agricultural College 
and had a long and wide experience in 
dry-farming in the Great Plains area. 
Under his direction this work has ex- 
tended in a remarkable manner and 
already eleven dry-land experiment sta- 
tions have been established, and several 
more will be started in the course of the 
next year or so. The area over which 
these operations extend is truly enormous 
and may be said to reach from the Mis- 
sissippi westward to the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains in California and to the Up- 
lands of the Columbia River basin; and 
from the Canadian line southward to 
the Panhandle of Texas; in all a tract of 
country comprising roughly one million 
square miles. The policy of the Depart- 
ment is to work in cordial harmony with 
the various State governments and to 

281 



DRY-FARMING 

supplement, but not to interfere with, 
any work which may already be in pro- 
gress. Dry-land stations have now been 
established at the following points in 
conjunction with the various States: 

In North Dakota at Wollaston, 
Dickinson and Edgeley; in South Da- 
kota at Bellefourche ; in Nebraska at 
North Platte; in Kansas at Hays and 
Garden City; in Colorado at Akron; in 
Texas at Amarillo and Dalhart; in 
Montana at Judith Basin. Of these sta- 
tions four, Bellefourche, Akron, Ama- 
rillo and Dalhart, are entirely operated 
by the National Department. To under- 
stand the scheme adopted, we may take 
for sake of illustration any one of the 
three North Dakota stations. Here the 
United States affords co-operative aid 
by paying the salary and traveling ex- 
penses of the official appointed to take 
charge of this work. Ordinarily, this ex- 

282 



DRY-LAND EXPERIMENTS 

pert is a graduate of the State Agricul- 
tural College, is recommended by the 
local authorities and approved by the 
Secretary of Agriculture. This official 
thereupon becomes a civil servant in vir- 
tue of his office in the Department of 
Agriculture. The National Department 
also aids the State farm in the purchase 
of any special machinery which may be 
necessary for the carrying out of experi- 
ments; as, for example, the small 
threshing machine for harvesting the 
grain on the experimental plots and other 
necessary implements. It has never been 
the intention of the Government to make 
money out of these stations. In a word 
they are soil and plant laboratories es- 
tablished for the express purpose of aid- 
ing the dry-farmer. Touching results: 
these stations were started principally to 
study the fundamental problems of crop 
rotation and the application of various 

285 



DRY-FARMING 

cultural methods, and although some in- 
teresting data have been obtained, the 
period since they were established is too 
short to speak with any certainty as to 
the ultimate results likely to accrue. But 
one thing is certain, — in emphasizing the 
need of better tillage, and the conserva- 
tion of moisture combined with fertility 
these stations cannot fail to have a pro- 
found and far-reaching influence. 

Another branch of the Department of 
Agriculture which gives practical aid to 
the dry-land farmer is the Forest Service 
under the Chief Forester Mr. Gifford 
Pinchot. This bureau gives assistance to 
tree-planters in the semi-arid regions by 
means of correspondence, publications, 
and by the preparation of detailed plant- 
ing plans based on field examination. 
The purpose of this co-operation is to 
establish model forest plantations in 
suitable localities, which will afford ob- 

286 



DRY-LAND EXPERIMENTS 

ject lessons in correct methods of forest 
planting. In addition the Forest Service, 
in co-operation with the State educational 
institutions, State foresters, etc., conducts 
experiments in nursery practice and field 
planting in seventeen States. Three of 
these experiments, located at Belle- 
fourche, South Dakota, Akron, Colo- 
rado, and Dalhart, Texas, are in regions 
where dry-farming is extensively prac- 
tised. Much useful information on 
species and cultural methods best adapted 
to the several States has been secured as a 
result of these investigations. Such in- 
formation, of course, is gladly furnished 
to prospective planters. 

The semi-arid plains of the United 
States are almost wholly lacking in 
native timber. With the gradual settle- 
ment of this region, however, a good deal 
of planting has been done for protection 
against wind, for the production of farm 

287 



DRY-FARMING 

material and for decorative purposes. 
Hardy, drought -resistant trees, such as 
honey-locust, Russian mulberry, black 
locust, green ash, hackberry, bon-elder, 
yellow pine, Scotch pine and jack pine 
have been most frequently used. Cotton- 
wood, silver maple, and Lombardy poplar 
have been planted where the land hap- 
pens to be moist. It has been clearly 
demonstrated that thorough and fre- 
quent cultivation to form a soil-mulch 
and so check evaporation is essential for 
successful tree-growth on the semi-arid 
plains. Furthermore, the deodar cedar 
and coulter pine have been planted ex- 
perimentally by the Forest Service in 
southern California; and although the 
experiments have been conducted for a 
comparatively short time, the results show 
that both these trees are well adapted to 
the rather trying conditions of that 
region. Other species which are being 

288 



DRY-LAND EXPERIMENTS 

planted on the National Forests in 
regions of deficient rainfall are the yel- 
low pine, jack pine, Douglas fir, and 
Engelmann spruce. The growing of 
eucalypts for commercial purposes has 
proved to be very profitable in southern 
California and many companies have 
been organized for the purpose of plant- 
ing these trees. They have also been 
planted in the warmer portions of Ari- 
zona and it is probable that all the 
hardier varieties of gums will find a place 
in the near future in the drier portions of 
New Mexico and Texas. From this 
brief sketch it will be plain that a vast 
amount of valuable work is being done by 
the Forest Service in the interests of the 
dry-farmer, and further that the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is fully aware of the 
importance of tree-planting on the semi- 
arid plains. But to the writer it has al- 
ways seemed a pity that the Government 

289 



DRY-FARMING 

repealed the "Timber Culture Act," 1 or, 
as it' was more popularly known, "The 
Tree Claim," for none but a western 
settler, wending his way over the desolate 
prairie, can fully realize the cheering 
welcome of a grove of cottonwoods, never 
failing guides, in storm and sunshine, to 
his helpmate and his home. 

1 This Act was in force from 1873 to 1891. It enabled 
any person to obtain 160 acres of land — a homestead — 
by planting 40 acres of timber and properly caring for the 
same for ten years. The number of acres of timber was 
finally reduced to 10 and the period of cultivation to eight 
years. The law proved a failure owing to the number of 
frauds in connection with it and also to the lack of officials 
to see that the regulations were properly carried out. 
Nevertheless, 44,000,000 acres of land were entered by 
this method. 

THE END 



290 



OCT 



13 1 809 



